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Heroes of the Nations. 



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G P PUTNAM'S SONS, New York and London 



Iberoes of tbe IRattons 

EDITED BY 

lEvelsn Bbbott, flD.H. 

FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD 



FACTA DUCI8 VIVENT, 0PER08AQUE 
GLORIA RERUM OVID, IN LIVIAM 265. 

THE HERO'S DEEDS AND HARD-WON 
FAME SHALL LIVE. 



WILLIAM PITT 

EARL OF CHATHAM 




Copyright Sir Benjamin Stone. 

STATUE OF LORD CHATHAM, IN ST. STEPHEN'S HALL WESTMINSTER. 

BY D. MACDOWELL, R.A. 



WILLIAM PITT 

Earl of Chatham 



AND 



THE GROWTH AND DIVISION OF THE 
BRITISH EMPIRE 

1 708- 1 778 



BY / 

WALFORD DAVIS GREEN, M.P. 



',',',':> 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK LONDON 

27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 

190 1 



CONGRESS, 
Two Copies Received 

MAP 15 1901 

Copyright entry 

CLASS ^)«C. N» 
^^ / 2L^ 

COPY B. 






Copyright, 1900 

BY 

G. p. PUTNAM'S SONS 



c ^ c c '• 



C , C C .6 



e • e « 



XTbe Itnfcfteibocftec press, "Rew l^orft 



TO MY MOTHER 

WITH LOVE AND GRATITUDE 
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION 



PAGE 

ix 



CHAPTER I. 

ENTRANCE INTO POLITICS. (1708-1737.) . . I 

CHAPTER II. 
WALPOLE, CARTERET, AND PELHAM. (1738-1754.) . I5 

CHAPTER III. 
PITT ATTAINS POWER. (1754-1757.) ... 47 

CHAPTER IV. 
PITT'S war MINISTRY. (1757-1761.) . . . IO3 

CHAPTER V. 

THE PEACE OF PARIS, AND THE STAMP ACT. 

(1761-1765.) 187 

CHAPTER VI. 
REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. (1766.) . 



• • 



237 



PAGE 



vi Contents. 

CHAPTER VII. 
THE CHATHAM MINISTRY. (1766-1769.) . . 267 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE OPPOSITION TO PREROGATIVE, (1770-1772.) 303 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE ATTEMPT TO SAVE THE EMPIRE. (1772- 

1778.) 332 

CHAPTER X. 

Chatham's personality and historical po- 
sition 366 

appendix : the family compact of 176 i . 383 

INDEX 386 




ILLUSTRATIONS 



STATUE OF LORD CHATHAM, IN ST. STEPHEN S 

HALL, WESTMINSTER * . . Froutispiece 
[By D. MacDowell, R.A.] 

COAT OF ARMS ix 

SIR ROBERT WALPOLE ** ..... 6 

[From the painting by J. B. Van Loo (1740) in the 
National Portrait Gallery.] 

LORD BOLINGBROKE lO 

[From the bust by Rysbrack.] 

THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE 22 

[From the painting by Bentley.] 

GEORGE II 38 

[From the painting by Bentley.] 

HENRY PELHAM . . . . . . .44 

[From the painting by Bentley.] 

WILLIAM PITt'^ 94 

[From the painting by W. Hoare, in the National 
Portrait Gallery.] 



* Copyright, Sir Benjamin Stone. 
2 Copyright, Walker & Cockerell. 

vii 



Vlll 



Illustrations 



PAGE 

LOUIS DE MONTCALM, ^TAT 29 . . . . II4 

FRENCH FORTS IN AMERICA, 1750-1760 . . I16 

ROBERT, LORD CLIVE I18 

MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES WOLFE . , . .122 

PRINCE FERDINAND 1 24 

ADMIRAL EDWARD BOSCAWEN . . . . I30 

LOUISBOURG MEDALS OF 1758 .... I32 

PLAN OF THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC .... I42 

MONTCALM AND WOLFE MONUMENT AT QUEBEC . I44 

SIR EDWARD HAWKE ...... 152 

VIEW OF MONTREAL IN I760 .... 160 

THE EARL OF BUTE '...... I94 

[From the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds.] 

HENRY FOX I98 

[From the painting by Bentley.] 

AUGUSTA, PRINCESS OF WALES* . . . . 2o8 
[From the painting by J. B. Van Loo.] 

EARL TEMPLE 234 

LORD ROCKINGHAM 238 

[From the painting by B. Wilson.] 

FREDERICK THE GREAT ..... 280 
[From the engraving by Meyer.] 

LORD CHATHAM . 286 

[From the painting by R. Brampton.] 



Copyright, Gibbings & Co. 



Illustrations Ix 



PAGE 

STATUE OF LORD MANSFIELD, ST. STEPHEN'S HALL, 

WESTMINSTER* ...... 306 

[By E. H. Bailey, R.A.] 

EDMUND BURKE 324 

[From the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds.] 

GEORGE III 334 

[From a painting by Allan Ramsay, in the Na- 
tional Portrait Gallery.] 

HORACE WALPOLe'^ 340 

[From the painting by N. Hone, in the National 
Portrait Gallery.] 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN . . . . . . 348 

[After the painting by Duplessis.] 



* Copyright, Sir Benjamin Stone. 
'•^ Copyright, Walker & Cockerell. 




COAT OF ARMS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

THERE is no good biography of Lord Chatham ; 
The History of William Pitt^ Earl of Chatham^ 
pubhshed in 1827 by the Rev. Francis Thack- 
eray, and the Anecdotes collected by Almon the 
Printer, are both of them fragmentary and erratic. 
The former served as a text for Lord Macaulay's 
famous essays, which are the most spirited accounts 
of Chatham's career. In Mr. Lecky's History of 
Englajid in the Eighteenth Century there is a sketch 
of Chatham's life, and I desire to acknowledge the 
obligation which every writer on this period must 
owe to that great work. The Correspondence of 
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham^ edited by the ex- 
ecutors of his son, exasperates the student by its 
omissions, but is none the less a valuable collection. 
It is to be hoped that the full correspondence will 
one day be given to the world. I have to thank 
Lord Lansdowne for permitting me to use some 
volumes of his Manuscripts, and Lord Edward Fitz- 
maurice, M.P., for valuable suggestions, and for 
the great courtesy and kindness with which he has 
assisted me. The period is peculiarly rich in polit- 
ical memoirs, and I have given references to the 

xi 



xii Introduction, 



authorities quoted in the text. The letters and chron- 
icles of Horace Walpole are no doubt, to some extent, 
malicious and at times inaccurate, but as a vivid con- 
temporary criticism, by a writer of insight and dis- 
cernment thoroughly conversant with affairs, they 
are a mine of information as well as a treasure-house 
of delightful reading. It is unnecessary to enumer- 
ate the other memoirs, and the many volumes pub- 
lished by the Historical Manuscripts Commission, 
which throw light upon Chatham. Most of these, it 
may be noted, have been published since the date of 
Thackeray's Life and Macaulay's Essays. The vast 
collection, in the British Museum, of the Duke of 
Newcastle's papers is of very great value. So also 
is Sir William Anson's recently published edition of 
the Duke of Grafton's JournaL 

Among the innumerable works of a more general 
character dealing with Chatham's period, those who 
desire to follow in detail the military and naval oper- 
ations which he planned will find the results of the 
most recent research embodied in the History of the 
Royal Navy, edited by Mr. Laird Clowes, and the 
History of the British Army, by the Hon. J. W. For- 
tescue. Of the war in America the best account is 
in the brilliant writings of Parkman. Entick's His- 
tory of the Late War (1764, five volumes) contains 
contemporary accounts of many battles, but is often 
misleading. Carlyle, in his Frederick the Greaty pro- 
nounces several characteristic eulogies upon Fred- 
erick's ally. The diplomatic history of the period 
is admirably recounted in Mr. Waddington's two 
volumes, Louis XV et le Renversement des Alliances 



Introduction. xlil 



(Paris, 1896) and La Guerre de Sept Ans, Des Debuts 
(Paris, 1899). Professor Ward's Great Britain and 
Hanover {O^iord J 1899) illuminates much that is per- 
plexing in English policy. 

As regards the latter half of Chatham's life, and 
his connection with the resistance of the American 
colonies, the History of America edited by Dr. Win- 
sor is the most comprehensive authority. I desire 
especially to mention two recent works illustrating 
this period : The Literary History of the American 
Revolution : I'/Sj-iySj, by Professor Coit Tyler, and 
A Short History of British Colonial Policy, by Mr. 
H. E. Egerton. A brochure by Herr von Raville, 
William Pitt und Graf Bute {BtrliUj 1895), sets forth 
a novel and interesting theory of the connection 
between the two men, and attempts to prove that 
Bute as well as Pitt was prosecuting a national 
policy. An ingenious American writer and an Irish 
scholar have sought to show that Lord Chatham 
was the author of the Junius letters, but I have re- 
sisted the temptation to discuss their theory. 

I have also to thank Sir Benjamin Stone, M.P., for 
permission to use the photographs taken by himself 
of the Chatham and Mansfield statues in St. Stephen's 
Hall, Westminster. 

June, 1900. W. D. G. 



WILLIAM PITT. 



CHAPTER I. 



ENTRANCE INTO POLITICS. 



1 708-1 737. 

WILLIAM PITT was born on November 15, 
1708; in the parish of St. James, West- 
minster. Industrious research has traced 
his descent from one Nicholas Pitt, who flourished 
under Henry VII., but the real founder of the 
family appears to have been John Pitt, a Clerk 
of the Exchequer in the reign of Elizabeth, The 
Pitts were settled at Blandford, in Dorsetshire, and 
in Cornwall. The great-grandson of John Pitt was 
Governor of Fort St. George and of Jamaica, and the 
fortunate possessor of the famous Pitt diamond.* 
He was selected as Governor of Madras, says the 
historian of the East Indian Company, on account 
of his known energy and ability, to put an end to 
dissensions and irregularities in that Presidency. 

* The stone was sold in 171 7 to the Regent Orleans at a profit of 

;!^IOO,O0O. 



William Pitt. [1708- 



He married Jane Innes, who was directly descended 
from the Earl of Murray, natural son of James V. 
of Scotland. In the days of Pitt's glory, Scotsmen, 
with their keen genealogical instinct, were able to 
point to this strain in his blood as an explanation of 
all that was loftiest in his character. Governor Pitt 
purchased the borough of Old Sarum and himself 
sat in the House of Commons as its representative. 
His eldest son, Robert, married the sister of an Irish 
peer, the Earl of Grandison, and their second son, 
William, was the subject of this history. The most 
important 'political connection of the family was 
with the Stanhopes, Lucy, daughter of Governor 
Pitt, being the wife of James, Earl Stanhope. 

We know very little of Pitt's parents, but some 
of the family letters shed light upon their character."^ 
The proceedings of his wife and children led Gov- 
ernor Pitt to send very irascible letters from Madras, 
but there is much good sense, patriotism, and moral- 
ity mixed up with his diatribes. ** God send a 
miracle to save Old England at last," he prays in 
the midst of the Marlborough wars. He held stern 
views on the virtue of economy at election times. 

" I have heard," he writes to his son, *' in what a 
manner you went down to Old Sarum against the elec- 
tion; sent down a man cook some time before; coach 
and six; five or six in liveries; open house for three or 
four months, and put me to about ;^5oo charge. Where 
was the need of this ? It never cost me above ;^io, 
which was for a dinner the day of election. I had a 
house in London which stood me in £120 per annum^ 

* Hist. MSS. Comm. {Dropmore MSS.). 



1737] Entrance into Politics. 3 

kept coach and horses, servants and all answerable, 
always three or four good dishes of meat at my table, 
as good wines as the world afforded, and plenty. It 
never exceeded ;^iooo per annum." 

In politics he was a fierce anti-Jacobite, and instilled 
into his son views of Parliamentary honesty which 
were rigorously followed by his grandson. ** If you 
are in Parliament show yourself on all occasions a 
good Englishman. Avoid faction, and never enter 
the House prepossessed. I had rather any child of 
mine want than have him get his bread by voting 
in the House of Commons." 

Robert Pitt wrote, informing his father of his 
marriage : 

** You always advised me against a disreputable mar- 
riage, which I have avoided by marrying a lady of family 
and character, with the approval of my mother and of 
Uncle Curgenven. Her fortune is but ;^2ooo and 
;^iooo more after the death of her father-in-law, Lieut. 
General Stewart. I hope I shall not be abandoned by 
you at a time when I have no other support but yourself, 
since my alliance with the greatest families in England 
is as much to your credit as my wife will be a comfort 
to you when you know her. My present happiness is 
altogether due to you, as it was the universal report of 
your good and generous character that induced Lady 
Grandison to give me her daughter. Her age is twenty- 
one, her portrait and letter herewith speak for them- 
selves; and I hope to obtain some geiiteel employment 
by the intercession of her relations." 

A friend, evidently employed to assist in reconcil- 
ing the stern parent, wrote at the same time : 



William Pitt. [1708- 



" Your gentlemanly son Mr. Robert Pitt does indeed 
deserve the character of a very ingenious person, of very 
quick parts. He cannot be wanting in giving you a par- 
ticular account of his marriage, and therefore I have only 
to tell you that the lady is as beautiful, as sensible and 
as well-behaved as most I have seen in my life. They 
reside in Golden Square." 

Governor Pitt lived till his grandson William was 
eighteen, and several references to the boy in these 
letters show that his grandfather entertained a fond- 
ness for him. The personal knowledge of England's 
far possessions which Governor Pitt possessed may 
have wakened in the future statesman that instinct- 
ive regard for the Empire which always character- 
ised him. This was perhaps as valuable a gift as 
the annuity of ^loo which was left him by the 
Governor's will. 

Pitt was sent to Eton, but the turbulent life of a 
public school in the eighteenth century possessed 
no charm for him, 

" Mr. William Pitt," wrote Shelburne, in that master- 
piece of malicious criticism, his character of Pitt, *' was 
by all accounts a very singular character from the time 
he went to Eton, where he was distinguished and must 
have had a very early turn of observation, by his telling 
me that his reason for preferring private to public educa- 
tion was that he scarce observed a boy who was not 
cowed for life, at Eton; that a public school might suit 
a boy of a turbulent, forward disposition, but would not 
do where there was any gentleness." * 

* Fitzmaurice's Shelburne i. 72. 



1737] Entrance into Politics. 5 

The malady which racked his body and mind through 
life attacked Pitt while at school, and at the age of 
sixteen he made his first acquaintance with gout. 
At Eton began his historic friendship with George 
Lyttleton, and among other contemporaries were 
his future rival Henry Fox, Fielding, and Charles 
Hanbury Williams. He proceeded to Trinity Col- 
lege, Oxford, and continued those classical studies 
which deeply influenced his mind. Writing, in 
later life, to his nephew, he extolled the advantage 
of a literary education, praising especially the great 
names of Homer and Virgil. 

" I hope you taste and love those authors particularly. 
You cannot read them too much; they are not only the 
two greatest poets, but they contain the first lessons for 
your age to imbibe; lessons of honour, courage, disin- 
terestedness, love of truth, command of temper, gentle- 
ness of behaviour, humanity and in one word, virtue in 
its true signification." * 

Pitt in fact drew from the Latin writers a Roman 
hardiness and unflinching patriotism, and if we may 
take the educational advice he gave to his nephew 
as evidence of his own studies, we may conclude 
that the poetry of Rome, the history of England, 
and the philosophy of Locke were the master influ- 
ences upon his mind. He admired Locke with the 
true Whig fervour, and adopted the Whig view of 
the seventeenth century. At Oxford his health 
was worse than at Eton, and he left to make the 
grand tour without taking a degree. 

* Chathani Correspondence, i., 62. 



L. 



William Pitt, [1708^ 



On his return he found himself at the threshold 
of a career with very restricted means, but with 
many influential friends and relatives. His elder 
brother had just been elected for both Okehampton 
and Old Sarum, and he decided to sit for the former 
place and to bring in William Pitt as junior mem- 
ber for Old Sarum. Thus occurred that paradox- 
ical conjunction of the most famous representative 
of the people with the most notorious of rotten 
boroughs. Pitt proposed to adopt a military as 
well as political career, and obtained a cornetcy in 
the Blues. It was in 1735 that he entered the 
House of Commons, which was then ruled by the 
strong will and rude mind of Sir Robert Walpole. 
The general election of the previous year had been 
fought with great eagerness on both sides, as the 
excise scheme of 1733 had shaken the Ministry to 
its foundations. But Walpole returned with a safe 
majority. He had quarrelled with every colleague 
who had shown any dangerous brilliancy, with Pul- 
teney and Carteret and Townshend, and still re- 
mained the sole Minister with power, using with 
complacency the great influence and mediocre tal- 
ents of the Pelhams, and the somewhat trivial 
ingenuity of his brother Horace, governing the 
King through the Queen, and controlling the House 
of Commons by means of frank corruption. In 
foreign affairs he had reversed the old Whig policy 
of hostility to France, and had sought peace and 
ensued it to the verge of ignominy. During his 
stretch of power the century-long struggle between 
England and France alrnost ceased, — as the result 




Walker & Cockerell. 



Copyright 

SIR ROBERT WALPOLE 

FROM THE PAINTING BY J. B. VAN LOO (l74o) IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY 



1737] Ent7^a7ice into Politics. 7 

in part of the Orleans regency, — but if Walpole 
spared his country the horrors of that struggle it 
was largely because his mind did not grasp the 
meaning of the long rivalry for empire. The in- 
stinct of the people desired national expansion, and 
before Walpole fell he had been forced to abandon 
in despair his policy of peace and to engage in a 
war that was concerned nominally with " Jenkins's 
ear " and Spanish atrocities, but in reality with the 
sovereignty of the West. In home affairs Wal- 
pole's healthy common-sense had proved invaluable, 
and his preservation of peace had enabled the 
country to recover from the exhaustion that fol- 
lowed Marlborough's wars and the South Sea 
madness. He had buttressed the throne of the 
Hanoverian dynasty and won many of the country 
gentlemen from the Jacobite cause. Advance in 
prosperity, the enjoyment of a sensible freedom, 
the absence of any formidable religious or economic 
cause of division, made Walpole's earlier adminis- 
tration acceptable to the people at large, and only 
when he touched their pockets by an excise scheme, 
or wounded their pride by appearing pusillanimous, 
did he rouse any considerable opposition outside 
the narrow political class which composed the 
Parliament. 

But within Parliament Walpole had many vigor- 
ous and untiring critics. The nominal division be- 
tween Whigs and Tories remained, but the cause of 
this division had almost disappeared. There were 
many adherents of the exiled Stuarts, there was 
endless intrigue on their behalf, but the Tory party 



8 William Pitt. 



[1708- 



was by no means exclusively or actively Jacobite. It 
was not strong numerically, and could have formed 
no effective opposition against any minister sup- 
ported by the Whigs as a whole. For the most part, 
the Tories were more interested in sport than in 
politics, but they possessed two leaders of great abil- 
ity, Sir William Wyndham and Shippen. Walpole 
himself said that Shippen was beyond corruption, 
and his known probity gave him much influence, 
while W^yndham was a brilliant orator and wit, and 
a man of charming and attractive personality. The 
sting of the opposition was in the ** factions," in 
the power of those Whigs who had committed the 
original sin of schism, and still proclaimed that the 
true Catholic Whig doctrines were their own. At 
their head in the Commons was Pulteney, the first 
great leader of opposition whom the House had 
known ; while in the Lords, Carteret, another of 
Walpole's dismissed colleagues, powerfully and in- 
cessantly opposed the Minister's measures, and re- 
ceived effective aid from the elaborate invective of 
Chesterfield. Carteret and Walpole really differed 
in principle on foreign policy, the former clinging 
to the old system of William III., the latter sub- 
stituting neutrality and diplomacy for active hostili- 
ties; but until the Spanish question introduced new 
considerations the difference of principle in foreign 
policy was in abeyance, and the Parliamentary con- 
flicts really meant that a grasping of immoderate 
power had produced an immoderate opposition. 
Walpole kept the Whigs in office for a quarter of a 
century, but at the same time he divided the party 



1737] Entrance into Politics. g 

into fragments, and it was this division which made 
it powerless to resist Bute, when that man of destiny 
arrived in 1761. 

Outside Parliament, Bolingbroke suggested plots, 
inspired invective, wrote pamphlets, and attracted 
adherents, against the Minister whose pedestrian 
industry had defeated his own genius,, who had ex- 
iled him and recalled him, and had inflicted upon 
his pride the last indignity of pardon. It was Bol- 
ingbroke who united the discordant factions of 
Wyndham, Carteret, and Pulteney; his brilliant 
patriotism attracted the young politicians of the 
day as strongly as Walpole's cynicism repelled 
them, his literary fame and genius fascinated the 
young writers to whom Walpole was only " Bob, 
the poet's foe. " The Idea of a Patriot King helped 
to form the stubborn mind of George III., and in- 
flamed the vanity of George III.'s father. Prince 
Frederick was a tower of strength to the Opposi- 
tion, but the quarrel in the royal family strangely 
enough strengthened the dynasty. It was possible 
to be in opposition to Government without being a 
foe to the House of Brunswick. The heir to the 
throne himself lent his name and influence to those 
who were intriguing against his father's servant, 
and the personal discontents and disappointments 
created by Walpole sent men not to Jacobitism but 
to the Court of the Prince of Wales. 

Pitt entered Parliament at the age of twenty- 
seven, as one of the * ' Cobham cousinhood, ' ' a small 
band of young men which was the precursor of the 
famous Grenville connection. The chief members 



lO William Pitt. 



[1708- 



at this time were Sir George Lyttleton and Richard 
Grenville, afterwards Lord Temple. Lyttleton en- 
joyed the privilege of being among the poets whose 
lives were written by Dr. Johnson, but it was his 
work on the conversion of St. Paul rather than his 
poetry which the great critic selected for praise. In 
politics he is remembered chiefly as the friend of 
Pitt; a man of grave and serious nature, he appears 
musing and abstracted among his more eager 
and violent contemporaries. He could express in 
periods of proper weight principles that had stood 
the test of time, and was impressive in debate when 
the occasion favoured a prepared oration. In these 
early days he and Pitt were inseparable, and the 
man of carefully cultivated talent and sober tem- 
perament was an admirable counsellor for the man 
of restless and hasty genius. Richard Grenville re- 
mained the intimate of Pitt for a much longer period 
than Lyttleton. A certain arrogance and overbear- 
ing will, a rather boisterous assertion of extended 
claims, were doubtful features in his character, and 
no man ever used the lower instruments of politics 
with less hesitation. None the less the future Lord 
Temple was immovably honest in purpose, faithful 
in friendship, and generous to those whom he 
trusted. George Grenville, his brother, joined the 
party in 1741, and brought to it a great share of 
Parliamentary talent and industry, with fixed prin- 
ciples of Whig doctrine which were to be applied in 
a spirit of legalism to every occasion. If we may 
judge from his diary, there was never any close 
sympathy between him and Pitt, and the natures of 



Jip- fi^^ 




LORD BOLINQBROKE. 

FROM THE BUST BY RYSBRACK. 



1737] 



Entrance into Politics, 1 1 



the two men were wholly diverse. The leader of 
this band, Lord Cobhain, had quarrelled with Wal- 
pole, and had been deprived of his regiment of 
horse, with the result that he occupied an important 
place in the circle of the Prince of Wales. 

In his youth, Pitt is said to have been strikingly 
handsome; we have the assurance of Chesterfield 
that he was very well-bred, and possessed the an- 
cient grace and courtliness of manner. His face, 
with its hawked nose and piercing eyes, was that of 
a man born to rule; his voice filled the House and 
was heard in the farthest corners, even when it sank 
to a whisper; his gesture was impressive and dra- 
matic. He made his first speech on April 29, in 
support of an address to the Crown moved by 
Pulteney on the occasion of the Prince of Wales's 
marriage. This first effort received from Tindal, a 
contemporary annalist, extravagant praise, but there 
is nothing in the recorded reports to distinguish it 
from other courtly efforts. These first speeches, 
however, must have shown some promise of the 
speaker's future greatness, as they received charac- 
teristic notice from Walpole. ** We must muzzle 
this terrible cornet of horse," said the Minister, and 
dismissed Pitt from his regiment. 

** The King, two days ago," wrote Lady Irwin to 
Lord Carlisle, on May 20, 1737, " turned out Mr. Pitt 
from a cornetcy for having voted and spoken in Parlia- 
ment contrary to his approbation ; he is a young man of 
no fortune, a very pretty speaker, one the Prince is par- 
ticular to, and under the tuition of my Lord Cobham. 
The army is all alarmed at this, and 't is said it will 



12 William Pitt. 



[1708- 



hurt the King more than his removing my Lord Stairs 
and Lord Cobham, since it is making the whole army 
dependent by descending to resent a vote from the 
lowest commission," * 

Lyttleton administered consolation to his friend 
in bad verse : 

" Long had thy virtues marked thee out for fame, 
Far, far superior to a Cornet's name ; 
This generous Walpole saw, and grieved to find 
So mean a post disgrace the human mind ; 
The servile standard from the free-born hand 
He took and bade thee lead the patriot band." 

A great trial of strength took place on a motion 
by Pulteney praying the King to settle ;^ 100,000 a 
year on the Prince of Wales. This was strongly 
opposed by Walpole, who dreaded the independence 
which this income would have conferred upon the 
successor. Pitt supported the motion in a speech 
which was not reported, but he was evidently ad- 
vancing in influence, as he was singled out for attack 
in Walpole's press. The extract is worth quoting 
as an example of the political writing of those days. 

" A young man of my acquaintance," said the Gazet- 
teer^ " through an overbearing disposition, and a weak 
judgment, assuming the character of a great man, which 
he is in no way able to support, is become the object of 
ridicule instead of praise. My young man has the vanity 
to put himself in the place of Tully. But let him con- 
sider that everyone who has the same natural imperfec- 
tions with Tully, has not therefore the same natural 

* Hist. MSS. Comm. {Carlisle MSS,). 



1737] Efitrance into Politics. 13 



perfections, though his neck should be as long, his body 
as slender, yet his voice may not be as sonorous, his 
action may not be as just." 

The Craftsman, duly defending Pitt, pointed out 
how much Athens would have lost if Demosthenes 
had been discouraged in his youth by similar strict- 
ures. 

The quarrel between King and Prince was at its 
height in the summer of 1737, as in this year the 
Prince removed the Princess from Hampton Court 
immediately before her confinement, an act intended 
as an insult to his father. Expelled from Court, 
the Prince of Wales set up a separate household, 
and appointed Pitt and Lyttleton his groom of the 
bedchamber and private secretary. The intimacy 
between Pitt and the Prince at this time is illustrated 
by a story told by Charles Butler in his Reminis- 
cences. 

*' The Prince of Wales and Mr. Pitt were walking in 
the gardens of Stowe apart from the general company, 
who followed them at some distance. They were en- 
gaged in earnest conversation, when Lord Cobham ex- 
pressed his apprehension to one of his guests that Mr. 
Pitt would draw the Prince into some measures of which 
his Lordship disapproved. The gentleman observed 
that the tete-a-tete could not be of long duration. ' Sir,' 
said Lord Cobham, with eagerness, ' you don't know Mr. 
Pitt's talent of insinuation ; in a very short quarter of an 
hour he can persuade any man of anything.' " 

The year did not end before a serious blow had 
fallen on Walpole by the death of the Queen. No 



H 



Willimn Pitt. 



[1703-1737] 



more remarkable woman appeared in royal circles 
throughout the eighteenth century. She had de- 
voted herself to the King, enduring slights to her 
pride and agonies of body rather than miss one 
opportunity of influence ; a wise counsellor, an 
astute diplomatist, she was full of intelligence, and, 
recognising Walpole's worth, had been unbrokenly 
loyal to her alliance with him. Thus the Minister 
was deprived of his truest friend at the moment 
when a crisis in foreign affairs was impending. 




CHAPTER II. 



WALPOLE, CARTERET, AND PELHAM. 



1738-1754. 



A DETAILED examination of Pitt's early ca- 
reer in Parliament would be of little value. 
It presented those features of extravagance 
and inconsistency which are rarely absent from the 
records of those who are compelled to force their 
own passage to the front. The main interest of 
these years, spent in winning the force and prestige 
essential for the attainment of power, is in the atti- 
tude Pitt adopted towards Walpole, Carteret, and 
Pelham and their differing policies. In considering 
that attitude we shall find, in the midst of declama- 
tion and invective, hints and foreshadowings of the 
national policy in which Pitt believed from first to 
last, which he himself in later years carried to a 
triumphant issue. 

The first great question that came before Parlia- 
ment in Pitt's time was the rivalry between England 
and Spain for the commerce of the New World. 
It was this which brought to an issue the long 
disputes on Walpole's foreign policy, and finally 

15 



i6 William Pitt. [1738- 

accomplished the great Peace Minister's fall. The 
keynote of his policy had been friendship with 
France, and this had been practicable so long as 
France and Spain were divided. In 1733, however, 
the natural union between the two Bourbon Crowns 
had been renewed by a Family Compact ; this treaty 
of the Escurial was the true origin of the war of the 
Polish succession, which had been in effect a Bour- 
bon invasion of Italy, and Walpole had only avoided 
intervention in that war by the greatest exertions. 
When, in 1738, the commercial rivalry between 
England and Spain became acute, Walpole, seeing 
in the background the great family alliance against 
British interests, desired to avoid war. Here, how- 
ever, he was dealing with a matter on which the 
English people could not be restrained. They saw 
their trade restricted and their Empire threatened, 
and if they had known, as Walpole knew, the terms 
of the Family Compact, they would have been only 
the more eager for war. France had agreed to as- 
sist Spain with all her force by land or sea, if Spain 
should suspend England's enjoyment of commerce 
and her other advantages. The privileges which 
England enjoyed under the Treaty of Utrecht were 
the monopoly of the slave-trade between Africa 
and Spanish-America, and the right to send one 
merchant ship to the annual fair of the Spanish 
settlements. The one legal ship was accompanied 
by many others, and a large smuggling-trade was 
carried on. Spain retaliated by a violent use of her 
right of free search, and many stories of cruelty and 
torture practised on English sailors were brought 



1754] Walpole, Carteret, Pelham. 17 

home. The Opposition eagerly adopted these 
stories, and encouraged the demand for war. Wal- 
pole at first minimised the English grievances, and 
then tried to frighten Spain into submission, but in 
the end he was compelled to declare war. 

Pitt had been among the most vehement of the 
Opposition, and his speeches won him fame. The 
Family Compact, which was renewed in 1743 and 
1761, had reaffirmed those Spanish ambitions in 
the New World against which England fought in 
this war. This agreement is of the greatest import- 
ance in the understanding of Pitt's career. It was 
the fulfilment of those prospective dangers against 
which William III. and Marlborough fought. Wal- 
pole fell because he either regarded it too little or 
dreaded it too much, but from Pitt's mind it was 
never absent. It appears in his first important 
speech and in the last sentence he spoke in Parlia- 
ment. He attempted to nullify it when he first 
obtained power by making large offers to Spain; he 
disarmed it of its terrors by crushing France, and 
resigned because at the moment of its renewal, in 
1761, he was not allowed to crush Spain also. His 
instinctive perception of the fact that extensive 
empire for England could only be won by defeat of 
the Bourbons made him the greatest of War Min- 
isters, and his conviction that the Bourbons would 
seek and obtain their revenge, when the Empire 
was hazarded by civil war, made him the true adviser 
of his country in that hour of perilous unwisdom. 

Those who demanded war in 1739 have often 
been denounced, and it cannot be pretended that 



1 8 William Pitt. 



[1738- 



England had any moral ground to go upon. But the 
wars of the eighteenth century were not moral wars, 
and a purely ethical judgment upon international 
affairs is rarely exhaustive. The question at issue 
was whether Spain remained sufficiently powerful 
to keep the position she had won as an American 
Power, and the only way in which such a question 
could be raised and answered was by a challenge to 
arms. As Adam Smith said, the war was a colony 
war, and, whatever the pretexts, the real object was 
empire and commerce. It was an incident in the 
long struggle for America. ** When trade is at 
stake," said Pitt, "it is your last entrenchment; 
you must defend it or perish." He pointed to the 
English fleet, and the two million people in Eng- 
land's American colonies, and declared that a war 
in America must prove fatal to Spain. But Europe, 
he told Walpole, sees that Spain has talked to you 
like your master. If the war had been properly con- 
ducted it would have realised the gains anticipated, 
but it was ill-managed, and was obscured by the 
European war in which it was merged, and as it was 
a war without glory it has remained a favourite sub- 
ject of condemnation. 

It was in March, 1740, that Pitt made the answer 
to Horace Walpole the elder which was polished 
by Samuel Johnson in his garret into the classical, 
retort of youth upon age. Pitt, defending himself 
against the atrocious crime of being a young man, 
declared, according to Johnson, that ** much more 
is he to be abhorred, who, as he has advanced in 
age, has receded from virtue, and becomes more 



1754] Walpole, Carteret^ Pelham. 19 

wicked with less temptation." According to the 
story told by Lord Sydney, whose father was 
present, 

"Mr. Pitt got up with great warmth, beginning with 
these words : ' With the greatest reverence to the grey- 
hairs of the honourable gentleman ! ' Mr. Walpole 
pulled off his wig, and showed his head covered with 
grey hairs ; which occasioned a general laughter in which 
Mr. Pitt joined, and all warmth immediately subsided." * 

The general election of 1741 proved fatal to Wal- 
pole, who resigned office and became Lord Orford, 
and an administration was formed by a coalition be- 
tween the Pelhams and Carteret. Pulteney declined 
office and became Earl of Bath. The Tories, Ches- 
terfield, and the Cobham cousinhood were passed 
over. There had been an angry demand for the 
impeachment of Walpole, and this question played 
a considerable part in the negotiations which led to 
Carteret's becoming Secretary of State. 

In connection with these negotiations, there is a 
story which, if true, is very little to the credit of the 
small party of Pitt, Lyttleton, and the Grenvilles. As 
a matter of fact, the story rests on slight and biassed 
testimony, and there is a somewhat remarkable ab- 
sence of confirmation. Its origin is to be found in 



* Coxe's Horace^ Lord Walpole, ii., 184. The Prince of Wales 
showed his appreciation of one of Pitt's speeches in a remarkable 
manner. "The Prince," wrote a member, "kissed Mr. Pitt in the 
House for his speech, which was very pretty and more scurrilous." 
Coxe's Sir R. Walpole, iii., 609. 



20 William Pitt. [1738- 

the pages of Glover, the author of Leonidas and of 
Hosier' s Ghost,"^ 

"In June, 1747, when Don Carlos {i. e., the Prince of 
Wales) was complaining of the ill-treatment he had re- 
ceived from Mr. Lyttleton, Pitt, and the Grenvilles and 
others, he added that to his certain knowledge Mr. Lyt- 
tleton had sent a letter to Sir Robert Walpole by the 
hands of Colonel Selwyn's son, offering terms : among 
other particulars, taking upon himself to answer for Don 
Carlos ; that this letter was sent previous to any accom- 
modation between Walpole and Pulteney, but was re- 
ceived with the utmost contempt by Walpole ; and it is 
certain, if Pulteney deserves any share of credit, that 
he has constantly accused that part of the Opposition, 
under which Lyttleton was enlisted, of making the first 
overtures to the minister and consequently compelling 
him, by their treachery, to precipitate the treaty. . . . 
Dr. Ayscough told me that he and Colonel Lyttleton 
were present at the meeting of Lyttleton and young Mr. 
Selwyn ; that Mr. Lyttleton opened with offering a 
secure retreat to Sir Robert Walpole, upon which Dr. 
Ayscough went out of the room taking the Colonel with 
him, and left the other two to themselves. The Colonel 
confirmed this account of Ayscough to me more than 
once." 

The story is thus told with great appearance of 
circumstantiality, but there are difificulties in the 
way of its acceptance, and it must be remembered 
that Glover had a strong dislike of Lyttleton, and 
that the Prince of Wales in 1747 was at the height 



* Memorials of a Literary Character (1814), p. 4, n. 



1754] Walpole, Carteret, Pelham, 21 

of his animosity against Pitt. Coxe, the biographer 
of Walpole, who had so vast a knowledge of the 
private papers of this period, evidently knew of no 
confirmation to the story, as he does not mention 
it in his earlier edition, but only in that of 1816, 
when Glover is quoted as authority. It is still 
further remarkable that Horace Walpole, who at 
this time was living with his father in constant con- 
fidence and would have greatly relished such a piece 
of news about Lyttleton and Pitt and Grenville, 
makes no mention of any such offer having been 
made. But above all it is curious that Walpole 
should have rejected the offer contemptuously, as 
some three weeks before his fall he had sent a mes- 
sage through Bishop Seeker to the Prince, offering 
him an additional ;^5o,ooo a year if he would desist 
from opposition. The Prince's reply was to the 
effect that he would listen to no proposals so long 
as Walpole continued in power.* 

This does not preclude the possibility of such an 
ofTer as Lyttleton is said to have made, as Lyttleton 
proposed not to support Walpole in power, but to 
screen him after his fall. Walpole may have felt 
secure against punishment when he persuaded the 
King to send for Pulteney on the condition that he 
himself should be protected, but the danger of an 
impeachment was great enough to make the Prince's 
support very valuable. Walpole told the King he 
must retire on February ist, but the final division on 
the Chippenham election did not take place until 

* Edw. Walpole to Devonshire, January g, 1742, Coxe's Sir R, 
WalpoUs 



22 William Pitt. 



[1738- 



February 2d, and before the division took place 
the Prime Minister sent word to the Prince of his 
intention to resign. After the resignation the Court 
made further overtures, and the Prince, to whom the 
additional ;^5o,ooo was granted, and places offered 
for two of his friends, gave an interview to Walpole 
on February 6th, and assured him of his protection 
in case of attack. Nevertheless we find Horace 
Walpole writing on February 9th : 

" All is in confusion ; no overtures from the Prhice, 
who, it must seem, proposes to be King. His party have 
persuaded him not to make up, but on much greater con- 
ditions than he first demanded ; in short, notwithstand- 
ing his professions to the Bishop (Seeker) he is to insist 
on the impeachment of Sir Robert, saying now that his 
terms not being accepted at first, he is not bound to stick 
to them. He is pushed on to this violence by Argyle, 
Chesterfield, Cobham, Sir John Hinde Cotton, and Lord 
Marchmont." * 

Thus the action of the Prince during the crisis 
seems to have been, first, a refusal to deal with Wal- 
pole till after his fall ; secondly, an interview on 
February 6th, in which he agreed to screen the Min- 
ister on condition of the ;^5o,ooo and places for two 
of his friends ; and, thirdly, a demand for further 
places. It is certainly almost incredible that Lyttle- 
ton should have made his offer to Walpole without 
first sounding the Prince, but when during these 
days would the Prince have sanctioned such an 

* Letters of Horace Walpole, ed. by Peter Cunningham (1886), i., 
125. 




THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. 

FROM THE PAINTING BY BENTLEY. 



1754] Walpole, Carteret^ Pelham. 23 

offer ? It was clearly to his advantage to wait, know- 
ing as he did Walpole's anxiety to come to terms, 
until the Court made overtures to him. There is, 
moreover, a certain inherent improbability in the 
suggestion that Pitt and Lyttleton should have gone 
behind the back of Pulteney, who had arrived at his 
hour of influence, in order to court the favour of 
Walpole at the moment of his fall. The whole 
story, when considered in the light of the Prince's 
conduct, is shadowy and mystifying, and certainly 
demands more cogent testimony than the recollec- 
tions of Glover, or the word of Frederick, Prince of 
Wales. * 

In the new Government there were three im- 
portant Ministers who had been colleagues of 
Walpole, and remained as leaders of the Walpole 
party. The Duke of Newcastle was the greatest 
master of political patronage known in English his- 
tory. He was Secretary of State from 1724 to 1754, 
and the nominal chief Minister, except for a very 
brief interval, from 1754 to 1762. A ready debater, 
skilful in negotiation, flexible in conviction, con- 
stantly embarrassed by a superfluity of irrelevant 
considerations and alarmed by the known and un- 
known dangers of life, he was a man of tireless in- 
dustry who learned nothing and achieved nothing. 
The stories of his absurd sayings import into the 
sober pages of history an element not of comedy but 
of farce. He exercised considerable influence upon 
England, because he kept out of power men who 

* Macaulay adopts the story because it " appears in so common a 
book as Coxe," and that of course has given it universal currency. 



24 William Pitt. ti738- 

would have acted when his will was paralysed and 
blundered where he, by the saving grace of inca- 
pacity, did nothing. All forms of government are 
oligarchical, but an oligarchy founded on birth and 
wealth is always liable to throw up a Duke of New- 
castle. His brother, Henry Pelham, was able to 
enjoy in the House of Commons the importance 
which the family influence bestowed. The brothers 
were very unlike in character, and the younger had 
a good business mind, with the punctuality, steadi- 
ness, and preparedness which the House of Com- 
mons has always liked. An eminently safe man, 
with caution writ large upon all his character, he 
was an excellent public servant and not unfitted to 
succeed Walpole. The other important member of 
Walpole's Cabinet was Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, 
a man of astonishing versatility, a briUiant advocate, 
a judge who was never reversed, a politician who 
stood well with all sections. Newcastle, Pelham, 
and Hardwicke now combined to meet the situation 
produced by Walpole's fall. 

The new administration experienced all the incon- 
venience of coalition, and contained two distinct 
parties : Newcastle, Pelham, and Hardwicke on the 
one side, on the other the secret influence of Lord 
Bath, and the aspiring genius of Carteret. The Pel- 
ham influence possessed the preponderating power 
in the Commons, but Carteret quickly gained the 
ear of the King. George H. had a comprehensive 
knowledge of German politics, and was passionately 
attached to his Electorate of Hanover ; Carteret 
alone amongst English statesmen equalled the King 



1754] Walpole, Carteret, Pel ham. 25 

in knowledge, and his views of policy were broad 
enough incidentally to include the interests of Han- 
over. His knowledge of modern languages was of 
great advantage to him, and Newcastle stood by 
panic-stricken while the King and Carteret conversed 
in German. George H. appreciated strength, char- 
acter, and brains in his servants ; Walpole, Carteret, 
and Pitt, the three great men of his reign, all won 
his confidence, though in the last case it was only 
given after years of suspicion. Carteret, indeed, 
appealed both to his respect for genius and his love 
of Hanover, and but for the influence of Lord Or- 
ford, the King might have anticipated the experi- 
ment of his grandson, and endeavoured to free the 
Crown from subservience to the Whig oligarchy by 
ruling through this favourite Minister. Orford, 
however, was on the side of the Pelhams, and in mo- 
ments of crisis the Whigs could rely on the supreme 
authority of their former leader with the King. 

The Opposition remained very powerful. In the 
Lords, that wandering star, Argyle, was at their 
head, having remained in office only for a month, 
while his chief supporter was Chesterfield. The 
latter was closely allied with Pitt, and was one of the 
first to appreciate his powers : " I share the marks 
of your friendship to Mr. Pitt," he wrote to Lord 
Marchmont, the friend of Bolingbroke ; " looking 
upon everything that concerns him as personal" to 
myself."* Pitt had, indeed, during his seven years 
in Parliament, made himself one of the powerful 
personalities of the House. In the days before strict 

* Marchmont Papers (1831), 11., 220, 



26 Wzllzam Pitt. 



[1738- 



party organisation, votes were gained by a great 
speech ; men spoke to their hearers, and not to the 
wider pubUc outside ; a debate was more than a 
parade of familiar arguments. It was a debating 
assembly and not a body of delegates which ruled 
the nation. Parliament was the theatre of the priv- 
ileged classes, who appreciated a combat of debate 
as keenly as they enjoyed a race on Newmarket 
Heath. Matters of serious importance were decided 
mainly by patronage, places, pensions, and all the 
devices of corruption, but none the less great powers 
of speech won for a man the impartial admiration of 
all parties, and, if they did no more, at least raised 
the market price of his vote. Debate was a rivalry 
in which all sought to excel, whether stirred by the 
noble infirmity of ambition or by more mercenary 
motives. The power of that oratory which rapidly 
gave Pitt an outstanding position in the House is 
proved by his success, though we possess so slight 
evidence of his speeches in the reports. Philip Yorke 
wrote to his brother in November, 1742, *' Pitt grows 
the most popular speaker in the House of Commons, 
and is at the head of his party." ^ Another lettet of 
the same year, written by Mr. Oswald, contains an 
interesting comparison of Pitt with Murray, who was 
one of the few lawyers as powerful in the House as 
at the bar. 

" Murray spoke like a pleader, and could not divest 
himself of a certain appearance of having been employed 
by others. The other (Pitt) spoke like a gentleman, like 

* Harris's Life of Hardwicke, 



1754] Walpole, Carteret^ PelJiam. 27 

a statesman, who felt what he said, and possessed the 
strongest desire of conveying that feeling to others for 
their own interest, and that of their country. Murray 
gains your attention by the perspicacity of his arguments, 
and the elegance of his diction, Pitt commands your 
attention and respect by the nobleness, the greatness of 
his sentiments, the strength and energy of his expressions, 
and the certainty you are in of his always rising to a 
greater elevation both of thought and style. For this 
talent he possesses beyond any speaker I ever heard, of 
never failing from the beginning to the end of his speech, 
either in thought or expression. And as in this session 
he has begun to speak like a man of business, as well as 
an orator, he will in all probability be, or rather at present 
is, allowed to make as great an appearance as ever man 
did in that House. ... I daresay you will scarcely be 
able to read this scrawl, which I have drawn to an im- 
measurable length, from the difficulty I find in having 
done when Pitt is the subject, for I think him sincerely 
the most finished character I ever knew." * 

That contemporary opinion gives us a sufficient 
idea of the position held by Pitt when, having won 
faiTte by his criticism of Walpole, he increased that 
fame by his criticism of Walpole's former rival and 
present successor. 

The fall of Walpole marked the end of an epoch. 
Walpole's steady aim was to live at peace with 
France, Carteret's profoundest conviction was that 
France was the destined enemy of England. Car- 
teret stands midway between Walpole and Pitt ; he 

* Thackeray's Life of the Earl of Chatham, i., 96, quoting Memo- 
rials of James Oswald (1825). 



28 William Pitt. [1738- 

proposed to nght France but he subordinated naval 
and colonial war to an European contest, whereas 
Pitt thought first of the contest on the sea and in 
America and India. Carteret belonged to an older 
school of political thought, and it was impossible for 
him to regard a skirmish on the banks of some lone- 
ly American lake as equal in importance to any con- 
test on the historical battle-fields of Europe. He 
immersed his mind in the complications of European 
diplomacy, and no man could trace more clearly the 
skeins of that tangled web ; but the changing com- 
binations of Continental Powers clouded his mind to 
the vital issue which might have been fought out 
in the colonies and on the sea. Fascinated by the 
politics of dynastic intrigue, he proved himself a 
powerful diplomatist in Europe, but failed to achieve 
any great benefit for his own country because his 
vision was limited to the Old World. He remains 
a prototype among Ministers of the spirited foreign 
policy and vigorous measures school, and nothing is 
more characteristic of him than his famous saying 
to Henry Fox : " I want to instil a nobler ambition 
into you. I want you to knock the heads of the 
Kings of Europe together and see whether you can- 
not jumble out something of advantage to this coun- 
try." Such was the method of his diplomac}^, while 
the ideal of his policy was to unite all Germany with 
Holland, England, and Sardinia, and if possible 
Russia, as the predominant Power of the north, 
against France. ^' I always traverse the views of 
France," he himself said,^ '' in place or out of place ; 

* Ballantyne's Carteret, p. 261. 



1754] Walpole, Carteret^ Pelham. 29 

for France will ruin this nation if it can." When 
he found himself in power in February, 1742, he at 
once set himself to serve this object with skill, per- 
sistency, and unrivalled knowledge of European 
affairs. He gave all his energies to the higher ob- 
jects of poHtics as fully as Pitt did in later life, and 
like Pitt he left questions of management to his col- 
leagues Newcastle and Pelham ; but unlike Pitt he 
possessed in no degree the power of influencing and 
magnetising the nation at large. Relying only on his 
own genius and the support of the King, he found in 
the hour of need that these things availed nothing 
against those who controlled the House of Commons. 
It is impossible to recount in detail the successes 
and failures of Carteret's policy in connection with 
the war of the Austrian Succession. The Emperor 
Charles VI. was succeeded in 1740 by his daughter 
Maria Theresa ; the Pragmatic Sanction, guaranteed 
by all the great Powers, served only to illustrate the 
idleness of international oaths. Frederick the Great 
began his reign over Prussia by claiming a large part 
of Silesia from the young Queen, and France sup- 
ported the claim of the Bavarian Elector to the Im- 
perial dignity, which had so long been associated 
with the Hapsburgs, and was now sought by Maria 
Theresa's husband. Europe was soon embroiled in 
a great conflict, and Carteret eagerly supported the 
Austrian cause. He persuaded Maria Theresa in 
1742 to pay Frederick's price, and by the Treaty of 
Breslau detached Prussia from France. This was 
a considerable success, but Prussia soon afterwards 
re-entered the war. Carteret's aim was now to act 



30 William Pitt. [1738- 

aggressively against France, and he agreed to take 
an army of sixteen thousand Hanoverians into the 
pay of Great Britain. In the previous year George 
11. had entered into a treaty of neutrahty for his 
Electorate and it was always his aim to assist the 
Austrian cause by means of his British treasury. 
The neutrality had created a feeling of discontent, 
but the payment of Hanoverians caused a violent 
agitation. 

The Parliamentary leaders of this agitation were 
Chesterfield and Pitt, and the subject was exactly 
suited to Pitt's inflammatory invective. ** The troops 
of Hanover whom we are now expected to pay," said 
he, " marched to the place most distant from the 
enemy, least in danger of an attack if any attack had 
been designed ; nor had they any claim to be paid 
but that they had left their own country for a place 
of safety." " It is now too apparent that this great, 
this powerful, this formidable nation, is considered 
only as a Province to a despicable Electorate." In 
July, 1743, the First Lord of the Treasury died, and 
the post was given to Henry Pelham. This was an 
important appointment, as Carteret's wishes in the 
matter were overruled, and it was now believed that 
the Pelhams were the men of the future. The party 
to which Pitt belonged henceforth showed a tend- 
ency to distinguish between the First Lord and the 
Foreign Secretary in favour of the former. The dis- 
agreement between them within the Cabinet was 
well known, and Pelham was anxious to strengthen 
himself by taking into ofifice a section of the Oppos- 
ition. The old Whig leader. Lord Orford, had so 



1754] Walpole^ Carteret, Pel ham. 31 

far overcome his contempt for Boy Patriots as to 
write to the new First Lord, *' Pitt is thought able 
and formidable; try him or show him." Pitt con- 
tinued his violent attacks on Carteret with the con- 
sciousness that they were pleasing to the Pelhams. 
He described him as '' an execrable and a sole 
minister who had renounced the British nation, and 
seemed to have drunk of the potion described in 
poetic fiction which made men forget their country." 
On another occasion Carteret was " a flagitious task- 
master, a Hanoverian troop minister ; they were his 
party, his placemen, he had conquered the Cabinet 
by their means." This invective served its purpose 
in marking out Carteret, but although the Minister's 
policy was reckless and he paid too much attention 
to Germanic schemes against France, the accusation 
that he was Hanoverian and not English was wholly 
unjust. Pitt, absorbing all the popular prejudices 
against the Electorate, expressed them with great 
effect, and probably with entire sincerity. It was 
hardly to be wondered at that the King should har- 
bour resentment against this furious antagonist of 
his native land. 

During 1744 Carteret's plans fared badly and the 
Pelhams improved their opportunity against him. 
They insisted on the necessity of a Dutch alliance, 
and a memorial avowedly hostile to Carteret was 
presented to the King."^ Carteret realised that he 
must either secure the mastery or resign, and he 
made overtures to the Prince of Wales ; there, how- 
ever, he had been forestalled by Newcastle, who had 

*Coxe's Felham, i., 177-185 for text. 



32 William Pitt. [1738- 

already secured the first refusal of assistance from 
the Opposition chiefs. It was debated by the latter 
whether or not they should join the Pelhams with- 
out stipulation. Bedford, Chesterfield, Gower, Pitt, 
and Lyttleton voted aye, while Cobham, Waller, 
Doddington, and Sir John Hynde Cotton were 
for making conditions. "^' A week or two earlier 
Pitt had expressed a very unflattering opinion of 
the Ministers he now proposed to join : in an inter- 
view with Bolingbroke he described them as weak 
men, incapable of concert, and in all their steps inse- 
cure ; he thought any union with them quite impos- 
sible ; they were contemptible, and he was angry 
with such and such, particularly Pelham.f Boling- 
broke in reply to this tirade told Pitt that he was a 
young man, and must not mix passions with business, 
and apparently this very salutary advice made a 
proper impression. Carteret, finding that the Op- 
position leaders were firm for the Pelhams, resigned 
on November 24, 1744, and the administration was 
strengthened by the accession of the Bedford and 
Cobham connections, with a sprinkling of Tories 
such as Gower, Doddington, and Hynde Cotton. 
The Whig party was almost reunited, and Pelham 
enjoyed the good fortune denied to Walpole of rul- 
ing the House of Commons without opposition. 

Although Pitt was qualified by his pre-eminence 
in the House for high of^ce, the King was so deeply 
offended by his speeches against Hanover that he 
absolutely declined to admit him to any post. Pitt 

* Glover, Memorials^ p. 35. 
\ Mar chmont Papers, i., 71. 



1754] Walpole, Carteret, Pelliam. ^ 

himself had proposed that he should be Secretary of 
War, and the Pelhams had recognised his power by 
admitting his claims; but the King resented the dis- 
missal of Carteret by the Whig junta, and the Pel- 
hams dared not further offend him by pressing Pitt's 
name. 

"The great Mr. Pitt," wrote Horace Walpole the 
elder, " having insisted upon being Secretary of War, 
and the King not agreeing to remove Sir W, Yonge, he 
declined taking anything ; but 't is said has promised to 
support their measures. Whether the desire of making 
a still greater and more popular figure in the House will 
not tempt him to break his word, time must show. 



" % 



Time showed that Pelham had secured a trustworthy 
ally ; Pitt's friends, Lyttleton and Grenville, were 
given minor places in the new Broad Bottom Minis- 
try, and Pitt after ten years in Parliament found 
himself for the first time a supporter of the Gov- 
ernment. He had won fame outside the House by 
his eloquence and by his fearless invective against 
Hanover. Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, died in 
October of this year and bequeathed to Pitt the sum 
of ten thousand pounds, *' upon account of his merit, 
in the noble defence he has made for the support of 
the laws of England, and to prevent the ruin of his 
country." Pitt may well have prided himself on 
this recognition of his merit by one who had known 
great men, who was profoundly scornful of all fools, 
cowards, and incompetents, and was not easily moved 
to praise or generosity. The legacy itself was of 

* Coxe's Horace^ Lord Walpole^ ii., io6. 
3 



34 William Pitt, i:i738- 

great value to one whose means were as linnited 
as Pitt's, and whose ideas of expenditure were as 
grandiose. Naturally enough the wits, who from 
the first were attracted by Pitt's flamboyant air, 
made merry over the coincidence in time of this re- 
ward for patriotism and cessation from active oppos- 
ition, and congratulated Pitt that the Duchess had 
not lived three months longer. Bolingbroke, who 
had urged Pitt's claim upon the Duchess, noticed 
that Pitt displayed more independence after his in- 
crease of fortune, and hinted that he was extremely 
supercilious and did not show the deference that was 
due to one who had negotiated Utrecht, conspired 
with Atterbury, and instilled the philosophy of na- 
ture into Pope. " Mr. Pitt," was the verdict of the 
veteran diplomatist and dilettante, " is a young man 
of fine parts, but he is narrow, does not know much 
of the world, and is a little too dogmatical."* 

Though Carteret was out, and Newcastle was be- 
come the guiding spirit, no change of principle could 
be seen in foreign policy. Newcastle quickly proved 
himself even more subservient to the King than Car- 
teret had been, but the vigour and dash of his pre- 
decessor were altogether lacking in this flurried and 
anxious ruler. Some improvement in Europe fol- 
lowed the death of the Emperor Charles Albert 
(January, 1745), as peace was made between Maria 
Theresa and the new Bavarian Elector, while her 
husband secured the Imperial crown ; England signed 
a convention with Frederick in August, 1745, and 
Austria was compelled again formally to renounce 

■^ Marchniont Papers^ i. , 80. 



t754l Walpole, Carteret^ Pelham. 35 

Silesia in the Treaty of Dresden (December, 1745). 
The Dutch were persuaded to make an offensive 
aUiance with England against France, but the cam- 
paign, which included the defeat of Fontenoy, de- 
monstrated the worthlessness of the policy on which 
the Pelhams and Pitt set such great store. The 
Hanoverians were no longer in British pay, but by 
a transparent device the subsidy to Austria was in- 
creased in order that Maria Theresa might pay 
them. In Italy, the Bourbon cause was completely 
victorious ; and the effect of Fontenoy was seen in 
the Jacobite rising, that last gallant effort of a chi- 
valrous folly. The year proved that the Whig oli- 
garchy was no more competent than Carteret to 
prosecute the war to any valuable end ; the King 
desired a more vigorous Minister, the people desired 
peace. The brightest feature of the year was the 
capture of Louisburg by New England colonists, 
a success which clearly pointed the way for Pitt's 
later campaigns. 

Pitt was prepared to prove himself as vigorous in 
support as he had shown himself in opposition. He 
resigned his appointment under the Prince of Wales, 
and going down to the House with a fit of the gout 
upon him, and with the mien and apparatus of an in- 
valid, he declared in his uniquely impressive manner 
that if that were the last day of his life he would 
spend it in the House of Commons, for the situation 
of his country was even worse than that of his own 
health. A great actor Pitt must have been, for the 
calculated solemnity of the many speeches he de- 
livered in this mood of approaching dissolution never 



^6 William Pitt. ' L1738- 



o 



failed to tell, and they were spoken to an assembly 
which has always boasted a keen sense of the absurd. 
It could not be said of him, as was said of a great 
man a century later, that he affected affectation ; his 
manner had an air of theatrical falsity, but it was not 
donned for an occasion and doffed when the occasion 
was served. His solemn words and action flowed 
from deep and sincere feelings, they were the out- 
ward and visible signs of a personality that sought 
always the most impressive pose, the most striking 
and ebullient expression. On this occasion, he paid a 
lofty compliment to Pelham for his moderate and 
healing measures. 

" I think a dawn of salvation to this country has broken 
forth, and am determined to follow it, so far as it will 
lead me. I should be the greatest dupe in the world, if 
those now at the helm do not intend the honour of their 
master and the good of the nation ; should I find myself 
deceived, nothing will remain but to act with an honest 
despair." 

When the Jacobite rebellion startled the country 
and caused a disgraceful panic in London, Pitt 
steadily supported the measures he believed neces- 
sary for its suppression, but he declined to support 
the employment of foreign troops for suppressing the 
revolt. 

" We had yesterday," writes Horace Walpole, Decem- 
ber 20, 1745, " a very remarkable day in the House ; the 
King notified his having sent for six thousand Hessians 
into Scotland, Mr. Pelham for an address of thanks. 
Lord Cornbury (indeed an exceedingly honest man) was 



1754] Walpole, Carteret, Pelham, 37 

for thanking for the notice, not for sending for the 
troops ; and proposed to add a representation of the 
national being the only constitutional troops, and he 
hoped we should be exonerated of those foreigners as 
soon as possible. Pitt and that clan joined him ; but the 
voice of the House, and the desires of the whole King- 
dom for all the troops we can get, were so strong, that 
on the division we were 190 to 44."* 

Apart from this incident, Pitt supported the Min- 
isters, and was never suspected of any disloyalty to 
the Hanoverian Succession and the great principles 
it represented. When Jacobitism' had shown itself 
and had been finally crushed, the standing reproach 
against Toryism was removed, and the ground was 
prepared for that complete national unity which 
enabled Pitt in later life to act as a national and not 
a party Minister. The cleavage of the British people 
into two hostile camps was at an end. 

The occasion of the revolt was characteristically 
chosen by the Whig leaders as a favourable oppor- 
tunity of teaching their sovereign a lesson, and as a 
result of their action Pitt entered office. The Pel- 
hams, who, according to Horace Walpole, had been 
alternately bullied and flattered by Pitt, were anxious 
to secure his absolute support by giving him a place, 
and once more urged his claims upon the King. 
George II., so far from wishing to make further con- 
cessions to the Pelhams, desired to restore Carteret, 
now Earl Granville, and Bath, and in February, 1746, 
he opened communications with them. Was a King, 
he asked, to be forced to admit a person obnoxious 

"^ Letters y i., 412. 



38 William Pitt, [1738- 

to himself ? Horace Walpole the elder wrote a 
memorial strongly urging the sovereign to yield. 

" There remains only this squadron of Lord Cobham 
to make the once formidable body of Patriots of no con- 
sequence. If this squadron should be admitted, and 
joined to the old Whig corps, his Majesty's business 
would probably be carried on well by this coalition, until 
the end of this Parliament ; the Whig party would again 
be united, and there would be a hopeful prospect of getting 
a new Parliament of principles thoroughly attached to 
his Majesty's person and Government." * 

Bath and Granville gave directly opposite advice. 
The former coming out of the King's closet said to 
Harrington : *' I have advised the King to negative 
the appointment of Mr. Pitt, and to pursue proper 
measures on the Continent." ''Those who dictate in 
private," was the reply, " should be employed in 
public." The Ministers resolved to show the King 
that he could not carry on the Government without 
them, and at the same time to make a striking pro- 
test against secret dealings with Bath. Harrington, 
Newcastle, Pelham, and all the important members 
of the Ministry resigned. The King at once sent 
for Bath and Granville, who set about making an 
administration that was to be supported by their col- 
lective forces of thirty-one peers and eighty common- 
ers. " For two days," said the wits, " it was unsafe 
to be abroad in the streets for fear of being pressed 
for a Cabinet Counsellor." f The uneven struggle was 

*Coxe's Horace^ Lord Walpole, ii., 140. 

I Pitt ten years later made a characteristic reference to this briefest 




GEORGE II. 

FROM THE PAINTING BY BENTLEY. 



1754] Walpole, Carteret, Pel ham. 39 

quickly ended ; the King was forced to talce back his 
rebelHous servants and to yield to their request, 
which they had made a matter of principle, that Pitt 
should receive a post. He did not become Secretary 
of War, but was made Vice-Treasurer of Ireland on 
February 22, 1746, and shortly afterwards was given 
the lucrative and important place of Paymaster- 
General. Newcastle, writing to Chesterfield an ac- 
count of this official earthquake, gives an amusing 
picture of George 11. 's affronted dignity when Pitt 
was thus pressed upon him. ^' The King insisted 
that he would not make Pitt Secretary of War ; after- 
wards that he would use him ill if he had it, and at 
last that he would give him the office, but would not 
admit him into his presence to do the business of it. 
. . . Mr. Pitt very decently and honourably author- 
ised us to renounce all his pretensions to the office." * 
" Pitt," wrote Marchmont, " in many pretty words 
said he would not go into the closet against the 
King's will." t Pitt's entry into office was memor- 
able not only in his career, but as a reassertion of 
the controlling power held by the House of Com- 
mons, or by those who themselves were masters 
in that House ; he himself, by his own personal 
power, without the aid of social influence, had com- 
pelled the Pelhams to accept him, and they in their 
turn, as a result of the power which their political 
connections embodied, were able to frustrate the far 



of all administrations: " I saw that Ministry : in the morning it 
flourished ; it was green at noon ; by night it was cut down and for- 
gotten." 

* Coxe's Pelham, i., 292. f Marchmont Paper's ^ i., 171. 



40 Willia77t Pitt. ti738- 

superior abilities of Carteret, and to impose their will 
upon the King. Pitt, who was to prove himself the 
first national and democratic statesman of the eight- 
eenth century, became Vice-Treasurer of Ireland as 
the result of a striking demonstration of oligarchical 
power. 

The caricaturists and pamphleteers were beginning 
to find Pitt great enough for their attacks ; the Op- 
position hero in office was represented as a kind of 
perverted patriot. 

*' Pitt seems at present," wrote Philip Yorke in April, 
1746, "the object of satyrical squibs. There is a print 
and a ballad out against him already. The first is the 
Duchess of Marlborough's ghost appearing to reproach 
him for his inconsistent conduct. The second is en- 
titled 'The unembarrassed countenance,' alluding to an 
expression of his in the House."* 

Pitt gave, by his conduct on becoming Paymaster, 
a very remarkable answer to his detractors. It had 
been customary for all who held his office to make 
large additions to the salary by two expedients, 
which were recognised as customary perquisites, 
though they were illegal, i^ 100,000 of public money 
was held in advance and the interest retained by the 
Paymaster as his own, while on every subsidy granted 
by England, the Paymaster retained one half per 
cent, as commission. Pitt paid the ;^ioo,ooo into the 
Bank of England that it might be immediately at the 
public call, and declined to take any commission on 
subsidies. The King of Sardinia was perplexed by 

* Harris's Hardwicke, ii., 235. 



1754] Walpole^ Carteret^ Pelhmn. 41 

this conduct, and offered Pitt as a present the com- 
mission he might have retained on the Sardinian 
subsidy. The gift was respectfully declined. This 
conduct, so characteristic of the man both in its 
honesty and its ostentation, made a great impression 
on the nation and startled Pitt's fellow-politicians. 
Corruption in English politics was the curse of the 
aristocratic system, but it was not crushed by legis- 
lation or by reform of the constituencies, or by any 
external influence. It passed away under the rule 
of Pitt's son, partly, no doubt, because the tension of 
the Napoleonic wars made public life more serious 
and strenuous, but chiefly because public opinion 
had been educated by a few men of loftier mind. 
Among politicians, the two Pitts exercised the widest 
and purest influence in this matter. The refusal of 
illicit gain was no doubt ostentatious, but the man 
who first proclaims a stricter rule of conduct is always 
open to the sneer that he is trying to appear more 
virtuous than his fellows. Pitt, it must be remem- 
bered, was a poor man, at the threshold of a career 
in which wealth meant power, and his disinterested- 
ness involved genuine sacrifice. The people, who 
were fully aware of the corruption that reigned in 
political circles, saw that Pitt was really to be dis- 
tinguished from the crowd of members who accepted 
the Walpole tradition, and George II. was impressed 
by this evidence of honesty. 

The King was persuaded to take a more favour- 
able view of Pitt by the zeal he showed in advo- 
cating a reward for Cumberland's victory over the 
Jacobites at Culloden. The new Paymaster was 



42 William Pitt. Ii738- 

anxious to stand well with the old Whig party. He 
succeeded in impressing Pelham, who told Newcas- 
tle that Pitt had the dignity of Wyndham, the wit 
of Pulteney, and the knowledge and judgment of 
Walpole. Pitt, wrote Newcastle, " said all that was 
right for the King, kind and respectful to the old 
corps, and resolute and contemptuous of the Tory 
Opposition." "^ Again, when the pension for Cumber- 
land was first mentioned, Newcastle wrote : *' Mr. 
Pitt has distinguished himself by his forwardness 
upon this occasion, and has been of great use to us. 
The King insists upon his moving (the vote of thanks) ; 
but the Premier thinks that honour should be con- 
ferred upon him." f George Grenville, writing a 
rather splenetic Memoir in 1762, says that Pitt 

" took the strongest part with the Administration, and 
endeavoured by all possible means to gain the confidence 
of the remains of Sir Robert Walpole's party, for which 
purpose he publicly disclaimed his former conduct. 
This gave the last blow to all intercourse between Lord 
Cobham and him. Having detached Mr. James Gren- 
ville from Lord Cobham, he appointed him his Deputy- 
Paymaster, which greatly irritated Lord Cobham. The 
rupture between Lord Cobham and Mr. Pitt likewise 
produced great uneasiness and coldness from Lord Cob- 
ham to Lord Temple and myself ; for though I was de- 
termined to preserve every mark of duty and attachment 
to my uncle, I still supported Lord Temple and Mr. 
Pitt on every occasion which his political conduct gave 
rise to." J 

* Coxe's Pelham, i., 309. \ Ibid., 485, 

\ Grenville Papers, i., 424. 



1764] Walpole^ Carteret, Pelham. 43 

Thus, the Cobham cousinhood had become the Gren- 
ville connection, and it is clear that even George 
Grenville accepted Pitt as leader. By this time, 
Pitt had shed the patronage not only of Lord Cob- 
ham but also that of Frederick, Prince of Wales, 
who when Pitt was proposed for Secretary of War 
diverted himself by sending a letter to Harrington 
suggesting Miss Chudleigh as more suitable for the 
post than Pitt."^ 

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the war in 
1748 ; it marked the rise of Prussia as a great power, 
but the restitution of Cape Breton to France in ex- 
change for Madras left the question of supremacy 
in America and India still undecided. The balance 
of power remained undisturbed ; France had won 
great glory but no extension of territory ; Austria 
had been impoverished by the loss of Silesia, but an- 
other great German Power had arisen which divided 
the German race, yet was strong enough to prove a 
sufificient ally for England against France ; the policy 
of the Dutch alliance had been shown to be obsolete 
and ineffective, but England's sea-power was undis- 
puted and the comparative failure of the Continental 
campaigns proclaimed that she must trust to her sea- 
power more fully. The Spanish Right of Search, 
which had provoked the original quarrel in 1739, was 
not even mentioned at the peace, and the war which 
had begun as a colony quarrel had ended with no 
> fresh advantages for the Empire of Great Britain. 
The peace was welcomed by Pitt as ''absolutely 
necessary for our very being," and the conduct of the 

* Horace Walpole's Letters, i., 407. 



44 William Pitt, [1738- 

war may well have taught him that English interests 
were best served not by an active part in the 
dynastic combinations of Europe, but by concen- 
trated efforts in America and India, where a wider 
colonial and commercial empire might be won. 

The Duke of Newcastle was much occupied during 
the following years in subsidising various electors of 
the Empire in order to secure the election of the 
Archduke Joseph as King of the Romans. Pelham 
objected to the expense involved in this extensive 
purchase of votes, and the elder Horace Walpole 
also opposed the system. Pitt, who at this time at- 
tached himself closely to Newcastle, defended the 
policy, but was evidently impressed by Walpole's 
arguments."^ Newcastle was even more anxious to 
turn out the Duke of Bedford than to elect the 
Archduke Joseph, and this scheme closely interested 
Pitt, as his most prominent rival in the House was 
Henry Fox, an ally if not a member of the Bedford 
connection. During the later years of Pelham's 
leadership, this rivalry became more marked, but it 
is remarkable that when Fox, on Chesterfield's re- 
signation, was talked of for Secretary, he wrote that 
the House of Commons was in his favour " and none 
more loudly than Pitt and Lyttleton." f Newcastle 
and Pelham differed as to the advisability of turning 
out Bedford, and this led to Pitt's affirming his alle- 
giance to the Duke, :j: and at the same time reconcil- 
ing to the best of his ability the different views of 



* See his letter, Coxe's Horace, Lord Walpole, ii., 346. 

f Coxe's Pelham, i., 391. 

\ Ibid.^ ii., 313, 314, and Chathafn Correspondence^ i., 31-56. 




HENRY PELHAM. 

FROM THE PAINTING BY BENTLEY. 



Tr54] Walpole, Carteret, Pel/mm. 45 

the two brothers. Bedford and Sandwich retired in 
175 1, and Fox, though he remained in office, was 
still their friend and associate. His vehement op- 
position to Hardwicke's Marriage Bill lost him the 
friendship of the Lord Chancellor, who from that 
time preferred the claims of Pitt. Fox identified 
himself with no general scheme of policy, but he was 
singularly gifted with the qualities that give influ- 
ence in the House of Commons — a robust common- 
sense, a rough wit, and the temperament of a fighting 
party leader. He frankly accepted the view that 
the object of politics is office, and his opposition to 
the Marriage Bill was the only occasion when he 
showed any real depth of conviction. He had al- 
ways been a member of the Whig party, and was 
looked upon by the general body of Whigs as one 
who had done good service — not to the State but to 
the party — and was therefore deserving of reward. 
His popularity in the House was far greater than 
that of Pitt, who never practised the arts which 
produce personal liking and affection. Pitt looked 
to the nation for support and sought great policies 
to serve ; Fox devoted himself to politicians, and 
thought of a policy as a lawyer thinks of his cause. 

The years 1748 to 1754 were marked by the care- 
ful economy of Pelham, but by few legislative meas- 
ures that remain of interest. In one case Pitt broke 
away from his allegiance, when Pelham proposed to 
reduce the number of seamen from ten thousand 
to eight thousand. *' The fleet," said Pitt, *' is our 
standing army," and with many compliments to Pel- 
ham on other matters he and his party voted against 



46 William Pitt, [1738-1754] 

the reduction. A Bill for naturalising Jews caused a 
great outburst of religious prejudice, to which Pel- 
ham yielded and Pitt with him, but on the Planta- 
tion Act, which naturalised Jews after a residence 
of seven years in any of the American colonies, Pel- 
ham remained firm and Pitt spoke for the Bill. 
Such report of his speech as remains shows that 
he held a characteristically English compromise on 
matters of ecclesiastical policy. 

" Here the stand must be made or venit summa dies, we 
should have a Church spirit revived. The late clamour 
was only a little election art, which was courteously 
given way to. The former Bill was not a tolerance of 
but a preference given to Jews over other sects. My 
maxim is not to do more for the Church than it now en- 
joys. Now you would except the Jews in the opposite 
extreme ; it is the Jew to-day ; it would be the Pres- 
byterian to-morrow : we should be sure to have a septen- 
nial Church clamour. We are not now to be influenced by 
old laws enacted before the Reformation : our ancestors 
would have said, * A Lollard has no right to inherit 
lands.' " * 



* Walpole's Memoirs of George II. (1847), !•> 3^6. 




CHAPTER III. 



PITT ATTAINS POWER. 



1754-1757. 



HENRY PELHAM died on March 6, 1754, and 
the Duke of Newcastle was left to fight the 
family battles by himself. There had been 
many feuds within the Cabinet, but the brothers 
rarely failed to compose their differences when any 
considerable enemy threatened their hegemony over 
the Whig connections ; they many times ceased to 
hold any intercourse with each other, but always 
employed some amiable intermediary, through whom 
communication might be made, and by whom recon- 
ciliation might be effected when the hour of danger 
arrived. Government by Cabinet has frequently 
required the exercise of moderating and healing 
qualities, by such colleagues of the great as are 
naturally fitted to perform the functions of a buffer- 
state between rival and encroaching Powers. The 
Pelhams had found Hardwicke invaluable for such a 
purpose, and the Chancellor still survived to be the 
confidant of Newcastle's fears and jealousies, the 
adviser of his policy and intrigues, the arbiter of his 

47 



48 William Pitt. [1754- 

disputes. In 1 750, Pitt himself seems to have been 
useful in patching up one breach between the 
brothers, but it is difficult to conceive of any man 
less fitted to act as moderator over the fussy, fretful, 
minute distractions of Newcastle, for Pitt all through 
his life was singularly distinguished from his contem- 
poraries by his contempt for the personal and family 
coijitests which to most politicians seemed of so 
immediate and pressing an importance. While he 
was indeed full of ambition, and of a contemptuous 
pride which made him the most difficult of colleagues 
and the most confident of leaders, neither his ambi- 
tion nor his pride was that of the politician, anxious 
about patronage or precedence, filled with the lust 
of office for office sake, but was that of the states- 
man who desired to set in motion a great policy. In 
deliberating over the probability of his ever attain- 
ing a position of control, Pitt must have realised 
that the obstacles in his way were very great. First 
and greatest was the royal disfavour, which had been 
mitigated but never removed ; against that disfavour 
Pitt could not rely again on an oligarchic demonstra- 
tion such as that of 1746, but for some time he 
endeavoured to secure an advocate with the King 
by paying court to Newcastle, to whom on one 
occasion he wrote : " Nothing can touch me so 
sensibly as any good office in that place, where I de- 
servedly stand in need of it so much, and where I 
have it so much at heart to efface the past by every 
action of my life." ^ How far the Pelhams kept 
their promise of pleading with the King for Pitt we 

* Chatham Correspondence^ i., 49. 



1757] Pitt Attains Power, 49 

cannot tell, but his great anxiety to advance in that 
direction kept Pitt faithful to the brothers, who now 
shared the royal confidence, against the rival Bed- 
ford party. Pelham wrote a well-known tribute to 
Pitt, whom he described as " the most able and use- 
ful man we have amongst us ; truly honourable and 
strictly honest. He is as firm a friend to us as we 
can wish for ; and a more useful one there does not 
exist."* Notwithstanding the friendship of Pelham 
and of the elder Horace Walpole, Pitt never seems 
to have secured the favour of the old Whig party ; the 
Grenville cousinhood was regarded by the heredit- 
ary office-holders as a rather aggressive and pre- 
sumptuous faction, and Pitt's brilliant talents were 
distrusted as much as they were admired. Like 
many men who have been eminent in the House of 
Commons, he was more feared than loved by the 
body of ordinary members. 

It was probably despair of the King's favour, and 
annoyance at this Whig suspicion, which led Pitt to 
revive his former connection with the Leicester 
House party. The Prince of Wales died in 175 1, 
and the Princess Dowager acted for two years with 
so much discreet wisdom that she obtained the 
King's pardon for all the opposition to his will of 
which informer days the Prince and herself had been 
guilty. For some years before his death, as we have 
seen, the Prince had regarded Pitt with the greatest 
enmity ; but circumstances favoured a renewal of the 
earlier relations between the Grenvilles and Leicester 
House. The Duke of Cumberland, a man of strong 

*Coxe's Pelham^ ii., 370. 
4 



50 William Pitt. [1754- 

character and great ability, was a more important 
personage after 175 1 than when his elder brother 
lived ; and he seems always to have been regarded 
with great jealousy by the Princess, a jealousy stimu- 
lated by the debates over their relative powers in the 
event of a regency. The Duke's favourite politician 
was Fox, his favourite party the Bedfords ; and it 
was natural enough that the Princess should turn to 
Pitt and the Grenvilles, her former servants, and the 
sworn foes of those who were now allied with the 
Duke. The Leicester House influence in 1754 was 
not extensive, and it was not exerted so actively as 
in the following year, when the proposed Brunswick 
marriage for Prince George seriously alarmed his 
mother, and urged her into regular opposition. 

The long reign of Walpole had made the House of 
Commons the predominant power in the Constitu- 
tion, and the events of 1754-1757 proved to New- 
castle and the King that they could only govern 
through that assembly. There was no difificulty in 
deciding who should be first Minister, as Newcastle 
settled that by taking the Treasury, but that great 
engrosser of ofifice was puzzled to find a man who 
should consent at the same time to rule the House 
of Commons and obey the Duke of Newcastle. By 
common consent three men possessed strong claims 
for the leadership, — 'Pitt, Fox, and Murray, — but 
there were difificulties in the case of each. Murray 
was under some suspicion of Jacobitism, Fox was dis- 
liked by the Scotch and hated by Hardwicke, Pitt 
had no great party at his back and was opposed by 
the King. Newcastle felt that he was for the time 



1757] Pitt Attains Power. 51 

secure of Murray ; he sent friendly assurances to 
Pitt, who was ill with gout at Bath ; and he opened a 
negotiation in set form with Fox, who was offered 
and accepted the seals of Secretary of State. Fox 
accepted this proposal under the impression that he 
was to lead and manage the House of Commons, but 
he speedily discovered that Newcastle intended to 
keep patronage and corruption, the disposal of the 
secret-service money, in his own hands, and that the 
great office which had been offered to himself was to 
be robbed of all its independence. "■ But how," asked 
Fox in amazement, *' how shall I know how to talk 
to members of Parliament, when some may have re- 
ceived gratifications, others not ? " On this vital 
point Newcastle remained firm ; he was not the man 
to delegate to another the control of the purse ; and 
Fox, after some consideration, found courage to re- 
ject the great post, to which such ignominious terms 
had been attached. Newcastle, searching the crowds 
of mediocrity for a subordinate, made the great dis- 
covery of his life. Sir Thomas Robinson. 

" Sir Thomas," writes Horace Walpole in his most en- 
tertaining manner, " had been bred in German courts, 
and was rather restored than naturalised to the genius of 
that country : he had German honour, loved German 
politics, and could explain himself as little as if he spoke 
only German. He might have remained in obscurity, 
if the Duke of Newcastle's necessity of employing men 
of talents inferior even to his own, and his alacrity in 
discovering persons so qualified had not dragged poor 
Sir Thomas into light and ridicule ; yet, if the Duke 
had hitended to please his master, he could not have 



52 William Pitt. [1754- 

succeeded more happily than by presenting him with so 
congenial a servant : the King, with such a Secretary in 
his closet, felt himself in the very Elysium of Herren- 
hausen ! " * 

In his choice of this formal mediocrity for leader of 
the Commons, and in his determination to do with- 
out either Fox or Pitt, Newcastle showed greater 
courage than at any other period in his life ; he 
gained time, and secured what Hardwicke described 
as the immediate fundamental object — the election 
of a new House on Pelham's plan. So apathetic, or 
so despairing, towards political measures and men 
were the people of England, on the eve of one of 
their greatest struggles, that throughout the country 
there were only forty-two seats contested in the gen- 
eral election of 1754, and the new Parliament pro- 
vided a great majority for Sir Thomas Robinson. 

During the progress of these negotiations Pitt had 
been an exile at Bath, the victim of a severe attack 
of gout. On the day following Pelham's death, he 
sent ''to Lyttleton and the Brotherhood " a letter of 
instructions for the party, from which it is clear that 
he expected substantial promotion, though he did 
not expect the first place. 

" My own object for the public is to support the King 
in quiet as long as he may have to live ; and to strengthen 
the hands of the Princess of Wales, as much as may be, 
in order to maintain her power in the Government, in 
case of . . . the King's demise. . . . As to the 

* Walpole's Memoirs of George II., i., 388. 



1757] Pitt Attains Power. 53 

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Fox in point of party, 
seniority in the Corps, and I think ability for Treasury 
and House of Commons business, stands, upon the 
whole, first of any. ... A real share in Govern- 
ment is necessary for our little connection." * 

To Temple, Pitt wrote the following advice, which 
declares frankly a plan common among politicians 
but rarely avowed. The essence of his *' whole poor 
plan " was 

" to talk moderately, to declare attachment to the 
King's Government, and the future plan under the 
Princess^ neither to intend nor intimate the quitting 
the service, to give no terrors by talking big, to 
make no declaration of thinking ourselves free by Mr. 
Pelham's death, to look out and fish in troubled waters, 
and perhaps help trouble them in order to fish the bet- 
ter : but to profess and to resolve bond fide to act like 
public men in a dangerous conjuncture for our country, 
and to support Government when they will please to 
settle it ; to let them see we shall do this ixom. principles 
of public good, not as the bubbles of a few fair words with- 
out effects (all this civilly), and to be collected by them, 
not expressed by us ; to leave them under the impres- 
sions of their own fears and resentments, the only 
friends we shall ever have at Court, but to say not a 
syllable which can scatter terrors or imply menaces. 
Their fears will increase by what we avoid saying con- 
cerning persons (though what I think of Fox, etc., is much 
fixed), and by saying very explicitly, as I have (but 
civilly), that we have our eyes open to our situation 
at Court, and the foul play we have had offered to us in 
* Grenville Papers^ i., io6. 



54 William Pitt. [1754- 

the Closet : to wait the working of all these things in 
offices, the best we can have, but in offices." * 

In London, according to Horace Walpole, Lyt- 
tleton acted as factor for the Grenvilles. " Unau- 
thorised, he answered for Pitt's acquiescence under 
the new plan. He obtained a great employment for 
himself, overlooked Lord Temple, and if he stipu- 
lated without commission for George Grenville, at 
least it was for a preferment, large beyond the lat- 
ter's most possible presumption." f The offices 
given to Pitt's friends were : to Grenville the Treas- 
urership of the Navy, to Lyttleton the Cofferership 
of the Household, and to Legge the Chancellorship 
of the Exchequer. Whether or not Lyttleton an- 
swered for his acquiescence, it is certain that Pitt 
was deeply mortified by being entirely passed over ; 
he expressed his discontent to Newcastle and Hard- 
wicke, and declared that he desired retirement. 

" The weight of irremoveable royal displeasure is a 
load too great to move under ; it must crush any man ; 
it has sunk and broke me. I succumb ; and wish for 
nothing but a decent and innocent retreat, wherein I 
may no longer, by continuing in the public stream of 
promotion, for ever stick fast aground, and afford to 
the world the ridiculous spectacle of being passed by 
every boat that navigates the same river. To speak 
without a figure, I will presume upon your Lordship's 
great goodness to me, to tell my utmost wish : it is that 



* Grenville Papers, i., 112. 

•j- Walpole's Memoirs of George II, ^ i., 387, 



1757] 



Pitt Attains Power. 5.5 



a retreat, not void of advantage, or derogatory to the 
rank of the office I hold, might, as soon as practicable, 
be opened to me." * 

Hardwicke and Newcastle both write long letters to 
Pitt, excusing their neglect of his promotion — they 
lay great stress on the King's resolution not to ad- 
mit Pitt, and intimate that if they had persisted in 
urging his claims the only result would have been 
to throw the King into the arms of Fox. *' I honour, 
esteem, and, if you will allow me to say so, most sin- 
cerely love you," wrote Newcastle. *' The King him- 
self, from his own motion declared Sir Thomas Rob- 
inson Secretary of State. Those who are honoured 
with your friendship, thought that the most favour- 
able measure that could be obtained." f Pitt wrote 
again to the leading Minister, complaining of the 
" painful and too visible humiliation " to which he 
had been subjected. 

" In my degraded situation in Parliament an active 
part there I am sure your Grace is too equitable to 
desire me to take ; for otherwise than as an associate 
and in equal rank with those charged with Government 
there I never can take such a part. . . . Indeed, my 
Lord, the Inside of the House must be considered in 
other respects besides merely numbers, or the Reins of 
Government will soon be wrested out of any Minister's 
hands." X 



* Chatham Correspondence, i., 105. 

f Ibid., i., 96. 

\ British Museum, Add. MSS. 32734, f. 322. 



56 Willia7n Pitt. tl754- 

Lyttleton has left us his view of these negotiations 
in his Observations on Mr. Pitfs Letters of 1754-,^ and 
he accepts entirely the views of Newcastle and Hard- 
wicke : " Lord Hardwicke, to keep down Fox, his 
personal enemy, most ardently desired the advance- 
ment of Pitt, as soon as the obstacles in the closet 
could be removed : but that was itself a work of 
much more difficulty than Pitt's impatience would 
believe. An attempt to force the King to it as early 
as he wished, after the death of Mr. Pelham, would 
have had no effect (as I have frequently heard Lord 
Hardwicke say), but to drive his Majesty into the 
arms of Fox, who, v/ith a very considerable number 
of the Whigs, was ready to support him against such 
a compulsion, and would probably have made his 
party good ; Mr. Pitt's popularity not being yet 
acquired." Lyttleton's optimist view was doubtless 
affected by the fact that he had himself obtained 
place, and though there was considerable force in the 
plea that to coerce the King would drive him to Fox, 
and though Hardwicke was undoubtedly Fox's en- 
emy, notwithstanding their formal reconciliation, 
and therefore Pitt's ally, yet it is difficult to believe 
that Newcastle ever intended to give the leadership 
of the Commons to a man of Pitt's known independ- 
ence. The Minister had not hesitated by a treach- 
erous offer to affront Fox, with his powerful influence 
among the Whigs ; so much he had risked in order 
to monopolise power, and he would hardly jeopardise 
that power by promoting a man whose" connections 
had been already gratified, whose claims were merely 

* Phillimore's Lyttleton^ i,, 487, 



1767] 



Pitt Attains Power. 57 



those of ability and character. It is a curious fact 
that at the general election Pitt was elected for 
Aldborough, one of the Pelham boroughs, and sat 
for that place even while he led the opposition to 
Newcastle's administration ; he has been greatly 
blamed for this conduct, but the blunders of the 
Government were so serious that Pitt not unnatur- 
ally thought more of exposing those disastrous mis- 
takes than of regulating his conduct according to the 
exact ethical code of rotten boroughs. A man of 
Pitt's position would not be expected to forfeit his 
private judgment because he accepted the Premier's 
nomination ; the relationship of servant to patron 
was not possible between Pitt and Newcastle. 

Pitt's gout, and the injury to his pride, kept him 
out of town for most of this spring and summer ; his 
letters to Temple are couched in the vein of excess- 
ive humihty which he was fond of working, and 
display also that love for rural exile which so often 
animates the unoccupied statesman. " I can hear 
unmoved of Parliament's assembling, and Speaker's 
chusing. ... I live the vernal day on verdant 
hills, or sequestered valleys — I envy not the dust 
of Kensington Causey, or the verdure of Lincoln's 
Inn Fields." As for politics, he would not go over 
to the Trojans to be revenged : " For my own poor 
self, I sincerely wish his Majesty's affairs in Parliament 
all success in the hands to which they are committed. 
I esteem and love Legge. Sir Thomas Robinson is 
a very worthy gentleman." This summer of exile 
and humility was memorable in the private life of 
Pitt by reason of his engagement and marriage to 



5 8 William Pitt. [1754- 

Lady Hester, sister of the Grenvilles. '* I am the 
happiest man alive," wrote Pitt to his cousin, " and 
you will believe me when I tell you Lady Hester 
Grenville has consented to make me so. You know 
how dear her brothers are to me." * 

Pitt's honeymoon was a very brief one ; he was mar- 
ried on November 6th, and on November 14th he was 
in his place, on the first day of the new session. His 
relations with Fox had changed as a result of the 
treatment they had both received from Newcastle ; 
although no formal union was settled between them, 
they were prepared to act together in skirmishes 
against Sir Thomas Robinson, and they both felt that 
Newcastle's project of leaving the House of Commons 
without any substantial ministerial leader was one 
which must be defeated. It involved the emancipa- 
tion of the executive Government from its depend- 
ence upon the representative chamber, and, as Fox 
said, " taking all from the House of Commons was 
not the way to preserve Whig liberty." Fox prob- 
ably agreed with Pitt's famous remark: ** Sir 
Thomas Robinson lead us ! — the Duke might as well 
send his jackboot to lead us ! " All the best speakers 
in the House were in some employment, and the 
Government majority was oppressively large, but the 
session proved an exceedingly lively one, full of 
personal heats and animosities. At its commence- 
ment Pitt carried a useful measure which benefited 
the Chelsea Pensioners by providing that half their 



* Memorials of Admiral Gambier, i., 74. Legge said jestingly, 
" I think the breed will be a good one, and can't fail to speak as soon 
as they are born." 



1757] Pitt Attains Power. 59 

annuity should be advanced to them when they were 
admitted ; previously they had received no payment 
till the end of their first year, and as a result had 
been much preyed upon by usurers, who lent them 
money at exorbitant rates. 

When the session was a fortnight old, Pitt startled 
the House by a furious outburst directed against the 
Premier. An election petition was being discussed, 
and the stories of bribery were creating immense 
merriment among members. Pitt was sitting in the 
gallery listening to the discussion, when suddenly 
he started up, came down to the floor of the House, 

" and with all his former fire said, he had asked what 
occasioned such an uproar ; lamented to hear a laugh on 
such a subject as bribery ! Did we try within the House 
to diminish our own dignity, when such attacks were 
made upon it from without ? It was almost lost ! It 
wanted support ! It had long been vanishing ! Scarce 
possible to recover it ! He hoped the Speaker would ex- 
tend a saving hand to raise it : he could only restore it — 
yet scarce he ! He called on all to assist or else we 
should only sit to register the arbitrary edicts of one too 
powerful a subject ! " * 

The effect of this speech was astonishing — " this 
thunderbolt, thrown in a sky so long serene, con- 
founded the audience," says Horace Walpole, who 
was present. Fox is even more emphatic ; he calls 
it the finest speech that ever Pitt spoke ; " displeased 
as well as pleased, allow it to be the finest speech 
that was ever made ; and it was observed that by his 

"^Memoirs of George II,, i., 408. 



6o William Pitt. [1754- 

first two periods he brought the House to a silence 
and attention that you might have heard a pin drop."* 
Later on the same day on another election petition, 
Sir Thomas Robinson made the mistake of declaring 
that a certain cause was a bad one before it had 
been heard ; Pitt immediately rose and denounced 
the unhappy diplomatist fiercely, Sir Thomas reply- 
ing '■' with pomp, confusion, and warmth." Pitt re- 
plied with cool art, showing that he meant the 
attack for Newcastle, and, in his manner of sublime 
condescension, added that he thought Sir Thomas 
Robinson as able as any man that had of late years 
filled that office, or was likely to fill it. Fox then 
took up the charge. 

" I excused Sir Thomas's irregular and blameable ex- 
pression (he writes) by his twenty years' residence 
abroad, where he had done honour to himself and to his 
country, and which easily accounts for his total in- 
experience in the matters now before us : he did not 
like it."t 

Horace Walpole, commenting on this scene, says 
that it was plain that Pitt and Fox were impatient 
of any superior ; and as plain, by the complexion and 
murmurs of the House in support of Sir Thomas 
Robinson, that the inclinations of the members 
favoured neither of them. The House of Commons 
at all periods of its history has extended a sympa- 
thetic tolerance towards mediocrity in high places. 



* Waldegrave's Memoir^ App. 

f Fox to Hartington, November 26, 1754, Waldegrave's J/^W£??>, 
App. 



1757] 



Pitt Attains Power. 61 



In another letter^ Fox gives an account of a 
famous attack by Pitt on Murray, an attack made by 
the pointed recital of an old story about seditious 
songs and toasts at Oxford, in which Murray was 
said to have been concerned. 

" I sate next Murray, ivho suffered for an hour. . . . 
It is the universal opinion that business cannot go on as 
things now are, and that offers will be made to Pitt or 
me. On this subject, Pitt was with me two hours 
yesterday morning. A difficult conversation : I managed 
it, as I think, as well as such a conversation could be 
managed. . . . The result of this is, that I will be 
as prudent as I can be with honour." 

Both Fox and Pitt were anxious to go as far as 
they dared against Newcastle, but Fox was more re- 
strained than Pitt, partly because he was more hope- 
ful of immediate concessions, and partly because he 
was anxious to stand well with the Whigs, who still 
regarded Newcastle with honour. Pitt was left almost 
alone in the Commons, as George Grenville for the mo- 
ment and Lyttleton more permanently, were satisfied 
by their promotion, and the intemperate Temple was 
his only adviser. The historic friendship with Lyttle- 
ton came to an end over some hasty negotiations f 
into which Lyttleton entered between Bedford and 
Newcastle. Lyttleton strongly disapproved of Pitt's 
tactics ; he writes, " It was quite impossible for me 
to join in an opposition, which, at the beginning of 
it, in the year 1754, and through the ensuing session 

* Fox to Hartington, November 28, 1754, Ibid. 
\ Walpole's Memoirs of George II., i. , 414. 



62 William Pill, [1754- 

of 1755, had not even the pretence of any pubHc 
cause, but was purely personal against the Duke of 
Newcastle." "^ The Cofferer did not perceive that 
there was public cause enough in any attempt to curb 
the power of Newcastle over the nation's destiny ; 
and, apart from that consideration, it was in the 
nature of things that two such men as Pitt and Fox 
could not tamely acquiesce in their own humiliation. 
Pitt was open enough in his haughty declaration to 
Newcastle. " Fewer words, my Lord, if you please, 
for your words have long lost all weight with me." 
It has been urged by a great historian that the 
conduct of Pitt at this time was an outrageous vi- 
olation of the most ordinary rules of political loyalty 
and honour, and that the conduct of a subordinate 
Minister who, while retaining office, makes it his 
main object to discredit his official superiors, cannot 
be justified. " Pitt adopted this course,*' says Mr. 
Lecky, *' through the mere spite of a disappointed 
place-hunter, and his hostility was directed against 
the statesman to whom, more than to any other 
single politician, he owed the success he had hitherto 
achieved." This judgment appears unduly severe. 
Pitt's obligations to Newcastle were more apparent 
than real : the resignations of 1 746, on which Mr. 
Lecky lays great stress, were undertaken in order to 
crush Carteret's secret influence, rather than to help 
Pitt, and the services rendered by Pitt since that day 
in the House had been ample payment to the Pel- 
hams; the promise which both the brothers had 
given that they would plead for Pitt with the King, 

* Phillimore's Lyttleton, i., 478. 



1757] Piif^ Attains Power. 63 

had, in the opinion of a shrewd and well-informed 
contemporary, "^ never been kept, and, whether ob- 
served or not, had been of no value ; while Newcastle 
had certainly acted in a manner wounding to the 
pride of Pitt by setting him on one side in favour of 
an unknown nonentity. If Pitt had conducted a 
covert intrigue against his nominal chief, he would 
have been open to the charge of dishonour, but was 
it dishonourable to challenge dismissal by open 
mutiny ? Pitt entered upon an open trial of courage 
and strength with the old Minister, a trial it was 
necessary to go through if he was ever to emerge from 
the rank of subordinates and deal with Newcastle as 
equal with equal. The main motive of his conduct 
was ambition, but there was another serious consid- 
eration, and the best defence for both Pitt and Fox 
was that they were entitled to prove the impossibility 
of Newcastle's plan of governing without any lead- 
ing Minister in the House of Commons. There is 
no doubt that if that scheme of government had been 
successfully carried out, the representative chamber 
would have lost weight, and the balance of the Con- 
stitution would have been altered. Newcastle's 
anxious jealousy feared any rival; he knew that the 
leader of the Commons must divide his authority, 
and he seriously conceived the plan of leaving the 
House without any leading Minister at all. 

Newcastle was pitiably distressed by the mutinous 
attack in the Commons; if he had possessed the 
courage of any ordinary man he would have ac- 
cepted Pitt's challenge and dismissed him from office, 

* Horace Walpole. 



64 William Pitt. [1754- 

but this course he dared not take, though prudence 
as well as self-respect counselled it. Instead, he en- 
deavoured to win over Fox, who had favour with 
the King through Cumberland, by offering him a 
place in the Cabinet. After much hesitation, Fox 
accepted the offer, in January, 175 5. He appears to 
have kept Pitt informed of the progress of the ne- 
gotiations, and to have been honestly unwilling to 
desert Pitt's interest entirely, as he at first stipulated 
that he should not be expected to oppose Pitt, and 
declared that he would not accept the latter's place 
if Newcastle dismissed Pitt. But his fidelity to his 
temporary friend was not proof against temptation, 
and Fox, on finding that the King really disliked 
Pitt, privately forswore all connection with him, a 
vow which was quickly reported to Pitt, who was 
deeply aggrieved, though he had disliked the idea 
of Fox negotiating for him and preferred to talk for 
himself. In May, the two men met accidentally at 
Lord Hillsborough's, and Pitt declared with some 
heat that the ground was altered ; that he would be 
second to no man ; that to accept the seals from Fox 
would be owning an obligation and superiority 
which he could never acknowledge — he would owe 
nothing but to himself.* Newcastle had succeeded 
in keeping the two strong men separate from one 
another. 

While these pergonal contests were proceeding, 
the relations between England and France were be- 
coming more and more strained. The inevitable 
struggle for supremacy in India and America had 

* Melcombe's Diary, p. 284. 



1757] Pin Attains Power, 65 

been interrupted by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle ; 
it was to be fought out, with the issues more clearly 
realised, in the Seven Years* War. In India, the 
year 1754 marked an era; by the incredible folly of 
the French authorities, Dupleix, who had suffered 
serious reverses but had made an empire, was re- 
called in disgrace, and from the day of his recall 
the French influence in India steadily waned. For 
England, on the other hand, the heaven-born gen- 
ius of Clive was working miracles, and the English 
sphere of power had been greatly extended in 1753 
and 1754. It was not, however, by their rivalry in 
India that England and France were to be forced 
into war, as the French King and Ministers had no 
conception of the great empire which they might 
found in the East, and were sluggishly indifferent to 
the national interests in that region. In North 
America the French dominions were thought more 
important, and more worthy of sacrifice and effort, 
but the paramount desire of Louis XV. was to avoid 
war. Yet, if ever or in any region war was inevit- 
able, it was inevitable at this time in North Amer- 
ica, since the questions at issue could only be decided 
by force. The French and English races were bit- 
terly hostile, the men of each race were hardy, val- 
iant, and determined to expand their limits, while 
territorial boundaries were disputed and the princi- 
ples on which the respective claims were based were 
incompatible and admitted of no common ground 
for discussion. 

France possessed great interests in America and 
the West Indies ; in the eighteenth century her 



66 William Pitt. [1754- 

settlements progressed, though not so rapidly as the 
British colonies, and the population of Canada rose 
fronn twenty-five thousand in 1721 to fifty-five thou- 
sand in 1754. The total population of Canada, 
Louisiana, and Acadie was about eighty thousand, 
while the English in America numbered one million 
one hundred and sixty thousand. 

The French positions were more favourable than 
those of the English : the two great rivers of the 
continent were commanded by them, while their 
rivals seemed shut off from the interior. The coast- 
line on the Atlantic was occupied by the thirteen 
British colonies, which lay between the ocean and 
the AUeghanies. West of the Alleghanies, in the 
lands occupied by Indians, and watered by the great 
rivers, lay the disputed territory. The French claim, 
stated at its highest, would have confined the Eng- 
lish rigidly to their coast settlements ; the English 
would have reduced Canada to the present province 
of Quebec. Another dispute concerned the bound- 
aries of Acadie or Nova Scotia, which had been sur- 
rendered to England by the Treaty of Utrecht. 
During the years preceding the Seven Years' War 
the colonists of the two countries were occupied in 
strengthening themselves for the contest which they 
regarded as certain. In these preparations, the 
French made greater advances than their rivals, for, 
in addition to their superiority in position, they 
enjoyed the advantage of centralised government. 
The Governor of Canada was supreme, while the 
thirteen British colonies were divided in interest and 
paralysed in action by the constant disputes between 



1757] Pitt Attains Power, 67 

their Assemblies and Governors. But the half-feudal 
government which gave to the French their military- 
advantages was the root cause of their ultimate de- 
feat. Canada was ruled on the principles of the 
Middle Ages, and her sons displaj^ed the virtues of 
loyalty and devotion which spring from those prin- 
ciples, but she lacked the free and unhampered spirit 
which was the secret of the constant and increasing 
expansion of the English. The war in the Old 
World was described as a struggle between Catholic- 
ism and Protestantism, and was in reality a struggle 
between modern and ancient ideas ; but in America, 
the French Canadians were far more truly fighting 
for their faith than the European troops of Louis or 
Maria Theresa. The colony had been kept unstained 
by the presence of any heretic, and the restrictive 
system involved in such a policy had been the main 
reason why Canada had not been more rapidly pop- 
ulated and developed. The Huguenots, the finest 
stock in France, had been prevented from emigrat- 
ing there. Louis XIV. said that he had not ex- 
pelled heretics from France in order that they might 
form a republic in America. On the other hand, 
the American plantations of England enjoyed a 
greater freedom in religion, politics, and commerce 
than those of any other European Power. The 
French built several forts on what was claimed as 
English territory, notably Fort Duquesne, where 
Pittsburg now stands. Their intention to restrict 
the English to the seaboard was clear. 

In January, 1755, two regiments embarked at Cork 
for the American service, under the command of 



68 William Pitt. [1754- 



Braddock. On May 3d, a great French expedition 
sailed for Quebec from Brest; eighteen ships of the line 
under De La Motte carried three thousand soldiers 
under the command of Dieskau. The new Canadian 
Governor, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, also sailed with 
the expedition. The English Government resolved 
to intercept this fleet, though England and France 
were still at peace. Boscawen's fleet sent on this mis- 
sion captured two ships, the Alcide and the Lys, and 
when this news reached Paris the French ambassa- 
dor in London was at once recalled. The bulk of 
the French reinforcements reached Canada, but an 
even worse blow was to fall on the English cause. 
Braddock's plan of campaign was an ambitious one, 
and if it could have been successfully completed 
would have effectually saved the colonies from fear 
of French invasion. He himself with his two re- 
giments was to attack Fort Duquesne ; Shirley, with 
two new regiments taken into royal pay, was to pro- 
ceed against Fort Niagara, which commanded the 
communication between Lake Erie and Lake On- 
tario ; William Johnson, with provincial forces, was 
to seize Crown Point, the French fortress defend- 
ing Lake Champlain, and Colonel Monckton, with 
another provincial force, was to reduce Fort Beause- 
jour and complete the subjection of Acadie. This 
comprehensive campaign was to be undertaken while 
France and England were still at peace, and the only 
apology for such action is that the French planned 
operations of equal treachery. Braddock himself 
failed altogether in his attack on Fort Duquesne, 
being defeated near the fort on July 3, 1755. He 



1757] Pitt Attains Power. 69 

fought with heroic stubbornness ; his men were shot 
down in hundreds by a concealed enemy ; he him- 
self had four horses shot under him before he would 
order a retreat, and at the moment he gave the order 
he received a mortal wound. His death redeemed 
the brutality and unintelligence which, with his 
scorn for the colonists and their superior knowledge 
of Indian war, had largely caused the disaster. 

The other expeditions organised during the year 
met with only moderate success. Shirley strength- 
ened the garrison at Fort Oswego, but could not even 
attack the French in Fort Niagara ; Johnson made 
a gallant defence of Fort George against Dieskau, 
but failed to reach Crown Point ; Monckton reduced 
Fort Beausejour and deported the French Acadians, 
an act of necessary harshness. The year's cam- 
paigning had been marked by a great disaster, and 
had made no impression on the French position. 

The day before Boscawen sailed in pursuit of the 
French squadron, George II. had embarked at Har- 
wich for Hanover ; the entreaties of Ministers, the 
critical condition of affairs, had failed to move him 
from his purpose. In his absence there was great 
distraction in the Council of Regency, who were 
utterly perplexed as to whether they should declare 
war against France or not. Some consideration had 
been given to the question of Continental alliances, 
and early in 1755 an application was made to Maria 
Theresa for twenty-five thousand men to aid in de- 
fending the Low Countries, in view of the probable 
French attack upon them. The application had 
been very coldly received. The Austrian Court had 



JO William Pitt. [1754- 

never forgiven the anxiety of England to secure the 
friendship of Prussia, and Kaunitz informed the 
EngHsh Minister that Frederick was the great enemy 
and the great danger to his country, and deUcately 
inquired whether England would be willing, in case 
of war, to act against Prussia. As Hanover was 
dangerously near to Frederick, this was exactly what 
George wished to avoid, and the negotiations fell to 
the ground. The English King busied himself in 
sowing the familiar crop of German subsidies, and 
a great project was in hand to secure the assistance 
of Russia, w^hile efforts were being made to detach 
Frederick from France. 

Without taking counsel with any English Minister, 
the King signed a subsidy treaty with the Elector of 
Hesse ; the treaty was sent over to Newcastle, who 
produced it at the Council, and announced that the 
King had settled it. Pitt's opportunity had arrived. 
To the astonishment of the Premier, Legge, the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, acting on Pitt's ad- 
vice, declined to sign the Treasury warrant until the 
treaty had been approved by Parliament. The sub- 
sidies were very unpopular with all politicians, and 
Newcastle was greatly alarmed at the prospect of 
their discussion in the Commons ; he felt the ne- 
cessity of securing an advocate, and renewed offers 
were made to Pitt. Hardwicke and Newcastle both 
had interviews with their colleague, and he was of- 
fered a seat in the Cabinet, friendly treatment by 
the King, and the seals as Secretary of State at the 
earliest opportunity, on condition that he would de- 
fend the subsidies. Pitt, however, after some con- 



1757] Pitt Attains Power. 71 

sideration, declined to come in. Hardwicke gives 
an account to Newcastle of the interview. 

" I showed him how we had jointly laboured in his cause. 
I thought we had gained a good deal of ground. . . . 
He did not wish it done (Secretary of State) without the 
King's own inclination to it ; desired a further mark of 
favour and confidence which must be extended to his 
friends. The maritime and American war he came 
roundly into ; subsidiary treaties would not go down ; 
they were a connection and a chain, and would end in a 
general plan for the Continent." 

It is curious to read Hardwicke's account of the 
strictly economical views of Pitt at this time.^ In 
his interview with Newcastle, Pitt agreed to support 
the Hessian treaty if the King's honour was spe- 
cially concerned. '' Well, and the Russian subsidy ? " 
said the Duke. '* No, no," rejoined Pitt, hastily, " not 
a system of subsidies." He plainly told the Premier 
that his system of carrying on business in the House 
would not do. '* There must be men of efficiency 
and authority in the House, a Secretary and a Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer at least, who should have 
access to the Crown, habitual, frequent, familiar ac- 
cess I mean, that they may tell their own story, to 
do themselves and their friends justice, and not be 
the victims of a whisper." As Pitt declined to give 
way on the point of subsidies, which involved in all 
probability the conduct of the war on the old haphaz- 
ard, inefficient system which had made the Austrian 



* Harris's Hardwicke, iii., 31-34. 



72 William Pitt. [1754- 

war so barren of result, the negotiation fell through. 
Fox agreed to become Secretary of State and leader 
of the House ; although he had privately expressed 
his disapproval of the subsidies, he was not the man 
to place an extravagant value on principle when it 
was an obstacle to power. He became the colleague 
of Newcastle, but he immediately began to strengthen 
in all possible ways his own power at Court and in 
the Cabinet. When Chesterfield heard of his ap- 
pointment, he said that Newcastle had turned out 
everybody else, and now had turned out himself. 

The King had further embarrassed his Ministers 
by negotiating, when in Hanover, a marriage for the 
Prince of Wales with a daughter of the Duchess of 
Brunswick; this plan was so disliked by the Princess 
Dowager, who feared that she would lose all influ- 
ence over her son, that she went into open opposi- 
tion. Pitt was taken into the greatest favour, a 
favour heightened by the fact that he had defin- 
itely broken with Fox, and therefore with Cum- 
berland. This opposition of the successor and his 
mother added greatly to the excitement when the 
House met on November 1 3, 1 75 5 ; a formidable party, 
with a great orator at its head, backed by the grow- 
ing discontent of the people, who thoroughly ap- 
proved the war and feared that the present Cabinet 
would grievously mismanage it, — such a party at so 
great a crisis in affairs excited animation in the 
House, which for nearly ten years had been accus- 
tomed only to languid discussions and indifferent 
concerns. The debate on the Address lasted from two 
in the afternoon till five in the morning, was marked 



1757] Pitt Attains Power. 73 

by a great display of oratory on both sides, and 
ranged chiefly round the subsidies. Pitt rose to 
speak after a number of inferior orators. "" How his 
eloquence," says Horace Walpole, *' like a torrent 
long obstructed burst forth with more commanding 
impetuosity ! He and Legge opened their new op- 
position in the very spirit of their different characters. 
The one humble, artful, affecting moderation, gliding 
to revenge ; the other haughty, defiant, and conscious 
of injury and supreme abilities." * The members of 
the House for the most part had never heard Pitt in 
one of his great sustained efforts, and on that night 
the orator, rising to the full height of his great 
powers, mastered and possessed an audience which 
was critical and hostile to himself. No verbal report 
of his speech remains, and such report if it existed 
would give us no better impression of Pitt's oratory 
than a photograph gives of a great picture : the 
warmth and colour would be gone ; phrases that 
seem to the reader high-pitched, images and parallels 
that appear overstrained were made vivid, trenchant, 
and convincing by the passion of the speaker. The 
orator's art, like that of the actor, is perfect only at 
the moment of its birth. 

There are certain detached passages spoken by 
Pitt in this debate which are given with some ful- 
ness by Horace Walpole, one of them being, per- 
haps, the most famous of all Pitt's utterances, — the 
comparison of the new coalition between Fox and 
Newcastle with the junction of the Rhine and the 



* Walpole's Memoirs of George II,, ii., 55. 



74 William Pitt. [1754- 

Saone. The introduction of this comparison is 
rarely quoted. * 

" I, who am at a distance from that sanctum sanctorum^ 
whither the priest goes for inspiration, I who travel 
through a desert, and am overwhelmed with mountains of 
obscurity, cannot so easily catch a gleam to direct me to 
the beauties of these negotiations — but there are parts 
of this that do not seem to come from the same quarter 
with the rest — I cannot unravel this mystery — yes," cried 
he, clapping his hand suddenly to his forehead, " I too 
am inspired now !■ It strikes me ! I remember to have 
been carried to see the conflux of the Rhine and the 
Saone ; the one a gentle, feeble, languid stream, and 
though languid of no depth ; the other, a boisterous and 
impetuous torrent ; but different as they are they meet 
at last ; and long may they continue united, to the 
comfort of each other, and to the glory, honour, and 
security of this nation ! " 

So far as Pitt, in this speech, was concerned v^ith 
himself and his own policy, he declared his gratitude 
to the King for the late condescending goodness and 
gracious opening, and his pity for Fox ; and through- 
out insisted that England must pursue the maritime 
and American war. '' Our navy procured the restora- 
tion of the barrier and Flanders in the last war, by 
making us masters of Cape Breton. After that war, 
with even that indemnification in our hands, we were 
forced to rejoice at a bad peace ; and bad as it was, 
have suffered infractions of it (in America) every 



* Walpole's Memoirs of George II. ^ ii., 55-60. 



1757] Pitt Attains Power, 75 

year; till the Ministers would have been stoned as 
they went along the streets, if they had not at last 
shown resentment." The subsidy treaties he said 
would only provoke Prussia, and light up a general 
war ; subsidies annihilated ten millions in the last 
war, while our navy brought in twelve millions. 
Murray had drawn a pathetic picture of the King in 
the evening of his life. Pitt too could draw such a 
picture. " I have figured him far from an honest 
Council all the summer, surrounded by affrighted 
Hanoverians, and with no advocate for England near 
him." The situation of the King's people was also 
pathetic and distressed : " within two years his Maj- 
esty will not be able to sleep in St. James's for the 
cries of a bankrupt people ! " 

The morning following this debate, Fox received 
the seals as Secretary of State, and five days after- 
wards Pitt, Legge, and George Grenville were dis- 
missed. Pitt's old friend. Sir George Lyttleton, 
became Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was said 
at the time that Pitt retired with a pension of 
;^iooo a year, but he was offered no such allowance, 
and probably would have accepted none if offered ; 
Lord Temple, with characteristic generosity, pre- 
vailed on his friend and brother-in-law to accept that 
sum as a present from himself, until better times 
should arrive. Certainly the Opposition of the Gren- 
villes under Pitt, assisted by Legge, who had pre- 
viously been an adherent of Bedford, did their best 
to speed the coming of better days ; they could not 
muster more than one hundred and twenty on a 
division, but they displayed great capacity, and Pitt 



76 William Pitt. [1754- 

felt, as often in his career he felt, that the great un- 
represented forces of the country were at his back. 
Fox sneered at his " awakening " speeches, but the 
mission of Pitt was to rouse and stimulate a spirit in 
the English people that should nerve them for the 
opportunity before them, a spirit of pride and pas- 
sionate ambition. He stood for vigorous and com- 
prehensive measures, for confident action, for faith in 
England herself and in the work of Englishmen who 
were raising new states in the East and West ; the 
system of the Grand Alliance was gone, but the 
enemy of England remained, and Pitt wished to see 
England, no longer impeded and impoverished by 
the little subsidised states of Germany, trusting in 
her proper force of sea-power and expanding the 
territories of her sons in the New World. At this 
moment the Prussian Alliance was not secured — it 
was so far unexpected that Russia was to be heavily 
subsidised in order that Frederick might be re- 
strained ; and the Hessian subsidy meant that a 
Continental war was to be risked, and British interests 
in America jeopardised, in order that Hanover might 
be protected. Newcastle was too timid ever to 
break boldly away from the Continental system, and 
but for the good fortune of the Prussian Alliance, 
and the new spirit infused into English measures by 
Pitt, the war with France would have reproduced the 
familiar features of the last struggle — occasional and 
discoimected naval victories balanced by fruitless 
Continental campaigns. It was against this prospect- 
ive policy that Pitt vehemently appealed to the 
English people through the autumn of 1755. As he 



1757] Pitt Attains Power. 77 

told Hardwicke, he would rather pay the King 
five millions compensation at the end of the war 
if Hanover should be occupied by the French, 
than risk the issue, which ought to be decided upon 
the sea, by European entanglements. He would not 
permit Hanover to be annexed, but he would not 
allow the central British interest to be dominated by 
the Electorate. 

The keynote of Pitt's speeches through these 
months is struck in one phrase : ''I want to call this 
country out of that enervated state that twenty 
thousand men from France can shake it. The 
maxims of our Government have degenerated, not 
our natives. I wish to see that breed restored, which 
under our old principles carried our glory so high." 
On every topic calculated to raise the national ardour, 
for every measure increasing the means of national 
defence, Pitt's inspiriting eloquence was heard, and 
the call to patriotism mingled with scornful invective 
against Newcastle. The Premier was a fitting butt 
for the ridicule of ardent Opposition speakers ; 
Charles Townshend's wit found a happy phrase 
when he inveighed against the Minister's petulant 
mechanic activity ; Pitt loftily denounced his little 
frivolous love of power, his ambition of being the 
only figure among ciphers. " To times of relaxation 
should be left that fondness for disposal of places ; 
wisdom should meet such rough times as these." 
When the Government, in their navy estimates, 
moved for fifty thousand men, Pitt regretted that 
they had not asked for more ; an increase of fifteen 
thousand for the army, bringing the total of men to 



7 8 William Pitt. [1754- 

34,263, was warmly supported, while in the same 
speech Pitt declaimed against the folly of having 
sent only two miserable battalions under Braddock 
to America. An alarm is the harvest of an eloquent 
politician, and Pitt declared that by alarming the 
nation he would make the danger reach the ears of 
his Majesty: he began this work by drawing ''a 
striking and masterly picture of a French invasion 
reaching London." As the French were ostenta- 
tiously busy at this time in preparing those trans- 
ports which have so often excited the imagination of 
the more timid among English people, and were 
boasting of their proposed descent upon England, 
Pitt's striking and masterly picture doubtless pro- 
duced its proper effect. 

The problem of dealing with the danger of a 
French invasion was met in two ways by politicians; 
it is a measure of the demoralisation which rotted 
the national spirit, that within a generation of Marl- 
borough the Ministers of England invited, and the 
people welcomed, the aid of Hanoverian and Hes- 
sian mercenaries in defence of their own shores. To 
his eternal honour, Pitt opposed this craven device, 
declared that the resources of the nation were sufifi- 
cient, and proposed to utilise those resources more 
effectively by training the national militia. This 
force had occasioned such dangerous disputes be- 
tween Charles I. and his Parliament that men had 
feared to raise any question concerning it, while the 
standing army, unpopular though it was with the 
nation, had steadily superseded the more constitu- 
tional militia. The great struggle over the principle 



1757] Pitt Attains Power. 79 

of a standing army took place after the Peace of 
Ryswick (1697), and ended in victory for William, 
who secured a body of seven thousand men ; in 
1750, two years after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 
the number had risen to nearly nineteen thousand. 
The national militia was in theory based upon com- 
pulsory service, and the Restoration Parliament had 
technically reconstituted it under the supreme direc- 
tion of the Crown ; but from that date to 1757, Par- 
liament passed no Act for its regulation, and the 
question was neglected. As opposed to the stand- 
ing army, which retained for a century and a half its 
association with the government of Cromwell, a 
national militia was the favourite plan of the Tory 
country gentlemen, and from time to time Opposi- 
tions had attempted to revive the system, but never 
with effect. The shameful expedient of hiring for- 
eign troops to undertake national defence naturally 
raised this alternative scheme, which was ardently 
adopted by Pitt. His scheme was unfolded to the 
House in a speech which delighted that eminently 
practical body by its plain precision, masterly clear- 
ness, memory for detail, and the capacity it showed 
for business. " He had never shone in that light 
before," says Horace Walpole. The proposals were 
to make the militia a real body of fifty or sixty 
thousand men, consisting entirely of infantry, en- 
listed under the compulsory force of the civil author- 
ity, a body which should be permanently available 
for national defence, and for furnishing recruits 
who would be trained men, for the regular army. 
Pitt expressly stated that the militia was to be only 



8o William Pitt. [1754- 

an auxiliary force, as he desired to see the standing 
army maintained at a strength of eighteen thousand 
men. This scheme, he argued, was " preferable to 
waiting to see if the wind would blow you mercen- 
ary troops " from Europe, and he specially com- 
mended it to the country gentlemen, who were, 
indeed, much gratified by the measure. A Bill 
embodying these principles was passed by the 
Commons but thrown out by the Lords*. In 1757, 
Pitt revived the plan. 

The struggle for the valley of the Ohio in Amer- 
ica forced on negotiations in Europe which revolu- 
tionised the international relations of all the great 
States, dividing ancient allies and reconciling inveter- 
ate foes. The grand contest between England and 
France might have been fought as a naval duel; 
nothing in the nature of the struggle demanded that 
it should be made a European concern. But all the 
eighteenth-century wars were of double aspect; in 
every case, the New World struggle was accom- 
panied by hostilities between the Continental Pow- 
ers ; this gave to France double opportunities of 
aggression, but also laid upon her resources a double 
strain. The great House of Bourbon, rivalled on 
one side by the House of Hapsburg, on the other 
by England's growing power, had struggled with 
unhesitating courage and pride to bear the weight 

*The Militia Bill excited very protracted discussions in the Com- 
mons, as the details were of interest to the country gentlemen. Pitt 
writes to his nephew : "I am well, but threatened with gout in my 
feet, from a parliamentary debauch, till six in the morning, on the 
Militia." 



1767] Pitt Attains Power, 8i 

of too glorious a destiny. Prussia, under the most 
cynical and able of all modern Kings, was beginning 
to move towards its position of predominance in 
Central Europe. The House of Hapsburg was ruled 
by a woman who could never forget the Silesian 
wrong perpetrated by Prussia, and after Aix-la- 
Chapelle was served by Kaunitz, a diplomatist who 
shared to the full his sovereign's belief that Prussia 
must be destroyed. The immense Empire of the 
North was beginning to stir into life, to realise her 
mighty strength, and to insist that the gigantic 
Slavonic armies should give Russia a share in the 
development of Western civilisation. The conti- 
nental convulsions caused by the growth of powerful 
nations and by the clashing of dynastic ambitions 
were felt by England because of her connection with 
Hanover, and by the same accident they combined 
with that colonial and naval rivalry which was of 
so much larger importance to the Island Kingdom, 
though it occupied so much less of her statesmens' 
thought, than the balance of power in Europe. 

The American difficulty was the signal for univer- 
sal preparation. The English Ministers turned, as we 
have seen, to Austria, Russia, Holland, and the minor 
German Powers. It soon became evident to Hol- 
derness, who conducted the English negotiation, 
that the old system would not be revived. A Con- 
ference at The Hague in May, 1755, showed that the 
chief party among the Dutch was bent on neutrality, 
while the Ministers at Vienna showed very little hos- 
tility to France. Keith, writing to Newcastle (May 
22d), reported a frank expression of Kaunitz's views. 



82 William Pitt. [1754- 

Prussia, said Kaunitz, had destroyed the old equilib- 
rium of Europe, and it was necessary to bring in 
Russia as a counterbalance to the new power. The 
only radical remedy was the restoration of the former 
state of affairs ; that is, the restitution of Silesia to 
Maria Theresa."^ A demand for Austrian troops to 
assist in defending the Low Countries against France, 
and Hanover against Prussia, met with a cold reply, 
which declared that ten thousand Austrians would be 
sent if England sent twenty thousand, secured a 
Dutch force and concluded a subsidy treaty with 
Russia. The English answer to this onerously con- 
ditioned offer was delayed, and on August i6th the 
Austrian Council decided to observe a neutrality, and 
leave the Low Countries to their fate. Although 
they failed in obtaining pledges from England's al- 
lies in the last war, the Ministers achieved greater 
success with the former allies of France. At Madrid, 
where Wall was in power, the French Ambassador 
Duras made strenuous exertions to secure Spanish 
intervention in the American quarrel on behalf of 
France. He went so far as to denounce Wall for his 
English proclivities. The Spanish reply was not 
encouraging. His Catholic Majesty regretted the 
rupture in America, but observed that " there should 
not be too ostentatious a display of the fortunate 
harmony existing between the two branches of the 
Bourbon house, lest the jealousy of other nations 
should be aroused." f This temporary interruption 

* Waddington, Louis XV. et le Renversement des Alliances (1896), 

P- 134- 

\Ibid., 122. 



1757] Pitt Attains Power, 83 

of Bourbon amity no doubt influenced the proposals 
made to Spain by Pitt two years later. 

Negotiations with Prussia began in July through 
the Duke of Brunswick. An inquiry was addressed 
to Frederick, whether he would abstain from inter- 
fering with the defence of Hanover, if the Electorate 
should be attacked. Frederick replied that the time 
for declaring his policy was not yet, but he would 
be glad to further an amicable settlement between 
France and England. His position was delicate ; his 
French treaty of alliance would expire in 1756, and 
he desired Louis to believe that Prussia would renew 
it. At the same time, Frederick knew well enough 
that Maria Theresa passionately desired to regain 
Silesia, and he feared that English money might sub- 
sidise a hostile combination of Austria, Russia, Sax- 
ony, and Holland. Especially he dreaded the Russian 
armies. In April, 1 75 5 , he strongly advised France to 
attack Hanover at once, believing that with Hanover 
occupied England would speedily come to terms; 
Rouillee welcomed the advice, and suggested that 
the invasion would be admirably executed by Prus- 
sian troops, but Frederick observed that sixty thou- 
sand Russians encamped every summer near his 
frontier and declined the suggestion. The Anglo- 
Russian treaty was the key of the position, and after 
it was signed Frederick quickly decided what his 
action should be. Hanbury Williams had gone to 
St. Petersburg to arrange a convention that should 
intimidate Prussia, and the treaty accomplished its 
object. Russia, in return for a large subsidy, pro- 
mised to maintain fifty-five thousand men on the 



84 William Pitt. [1754- 

Livonian frontier; if Great Britain or her allies should 
be attacked, the Russian army should be raised to 
one hundred thousand, while England engaged to 
send a fleet to the Baltic, and secure a passage 
through Poland for the Russian troops. A secret 
article provided that each Power should communicate 
to the other any negotiation with the common .en- 
emy.* The common enemy, according to the Czar- 
ina Elizabeth, was the King of Prussia. When 
Frederick saw this treaty he suggested that the neu- 
trality of Germany should be guaranteed by Great 
Britain and Prussia, and on January 16, 1756, the 
Treaty of Westminster was signed. Each nation was 
pledged not to attack the other, and to persuade its 
allies to refrain from such attack ; both agreed to 
unite forces against any state invading Germany, 
from which the Austrian Low Countries were ex- 
pressly excluded ; all treaties of guaranty between 
the two nations were renewed. When the treaty 
came before Parliament, Pitt said that he would not 
have signed it for all the five great places of those 
whose signatures were attached. He did not foresee 
that America would be conquered in Germany, and 
his opposition to this treaty was one of the greatest 
errors in his political career. 

The effect of the treaty in Europe was not so 
advantageous to Frederick as he expected. The 
Anglo-Russian treaty was ratified on February 14, 
1756, and while England declared that Russian troops 
would only be requisitioned in the event of an at- 
tack on Hanover, Russia made the very different 

* Waddington, op. cit., 152. 



1767] Pitt Attains Power, 85 

declaration that the troops would march, should 
Prussia, the " common enemy " of the secret article, 
attack England or an ally of England. Among the 
allies of England it was to be understood that Aus- 
tria was included, so that Frederick was still ex- 
posed to Russian hostility if he attacked Maria 
Theresa. Prussia was further endangered by the 
complete breach with France that followed the 
Treaty of Westminster. Kaunitz heard of that 
treaty with satisfaction : he believed the antagonism 
between the Hapsburgs and Bourbons was a foolish 
survival, and that an alliance between the two great 
Catholic Powers might control Europe and avenge 
Austria. His plans were greatly helped by the 
Czarina's declaration (April, 1756) that she would 
place eighty thousand men in the field against 
Prussia, and would not make peace till Silesia was 
restored to Maria Theresa. Louis declined to en- 
gage in the scheme for partitioning Prussia proposed 
by Kaunitz. But the first step was taken and a de- 
fensive alliance was arranged by the first Treaty of 
Versailles (May, 1756), by which Austria agreed to 
give no aid to England, and France was pledged 
not to invade the Low Countries. The system of 
Europe was thus completely changed. 

The French King waited for months after the 
hostile acts committed by the English before he re- 
taliated, either by practical measures or by a declar- 
ation of war. By ostentatious preparations in his 
ports from Dunkirk to Brest, he had, as we have seen, 
caused considerable panic among his enemies, and 
these preparations were a skilful disguise for the 



86 Wzlliam Pitt. L1754- 

bold and novel scheme conceived by his Ministers. 
It was decided to attack Minorca, and an expedition 
consisting of twelve thousand men, under the Due 
de Richelieu, and twelve ships of the line (with no 
fewer than two hundred transports) under La Galis- 
soni^re, one of the most capable of French naval 
commanders, left Toulon on April lo, 1756. One 
of the gravest charges which history has brought 
against Newcastle's government is that it culpably 
neglected all plans for defeating this scheme. The 
fleet under Admiral Byng, intended to intercept the 
French expedition, did not sail from Spithead until 
April 7th. Byng, failing to defeat the French ad- 
miral, could not raise the siege and Minorca capitu- 
lated in June. 

These events had created great excitement in 
France and England ; the former country declared 
war formally on May nth, the latter a week later, 
and this first incident in the war caused immense 
rejoicings in Paris, and equal shame and indignation 
in London. There was a great outcry against Min- 
isters, and Newcastle was in a perturbed fever of 
fear. To the deputation from the city which waited 
on him to demand punishment for Byng, he replied, 
"Oh, indeed, he shall be tried immediately; he 
shall be hanged directly." That their own conduct 
might be screened, Ministers adopted and stimulated 
the wild popular anger against the admiral ; Hawke 
was sent to Gibraltar to arrest Byng and West, and 
they were immediately brought to England as pris- 
oners. The opinion of more disinterested persons 
was reflected in a letter of George Grenville to Pitt. 



1757] Pitt Attains Power. 87 

"What can be the excuse for sending a force, which at 
the utmost is scarcely equal to the enemy, upon so im- 
portant and decisive an expedition ? Though in the 
venality of this hour, it may be deemed sufficient to 
throw the whole blame upon Byng, yet I will venture to 
say the other is a question that, in the judgment of every 
impartial man, now and hereafter, will require a better 
answer than, I am afraid, can be given to it." * 

Naval tacticians have been divided in their opinions 
on the wisdom of Byng's actions, but the chief blame 
for the loss of Minorca must lie upon the Min- 
isters vi^ho delayed so long the preparations 
for defence, and then dispatched a fleet inad- 
equate in strength, ill-manned, and in bad condi- 
tion. In the year 1756, France possessed sixty-three 
ships of the line, England one hundred and forty- 
five, and there was no reason why Byng should 
not have been furnished with a much stronger fleet. 
The theoretical command of the sea had not se- 
cured immunity from attack ; notwithstanding the 
immensely greater strength of the English naval re- 
sources, the French expedition to Canada, with the 
exception of two ships, had eluded Boscawen, and 
La Galissonifere had decisively prevented the relief 
of Minorca. 

Before the definite news that Minorca was lost 
reached London, Parliament had risen ; but there 
had arrived rumours of disaster when Pitt spoke in 
the great debate of May 11, 1756. 

" He charged Ministers with having provoked before 
they could defend and neglected after provocation ; with 
^Chatham Correspondence, i., 163. 



88 William Pitt, [1754- 

having left the country inferior to France in every 
quarter. He prayed to God that his Majesty might not 
have Minorca, like Calais, written upon his heart ! If 
he saw a child (Newcastle) driving a go-cart close to the 
edge of a precipice, with the precious freight of an old 
king and his family, he was bound to take the reins out 
of such hands." 

The picturesque image of the go-cart captured 
the public fancy. It aptly called up the trivial 
absurdities of the chief Minister, whose nerveless 
hands were so unfit to hold the reins of government 
at this crisis. A great wave of angry popular feel- 
ing was rising throughout the land. From all the chief 
counties and towns addresses were sent, demanding 
strict inquiry into the Minorca disaster, and the city 
of London suggested that supplies should be stopped 
until grievances had been redressed. The year was 
marked by other losses which added fuel to the fire 
when they become known ; in June, Calcutta was 
captured by Surajah Dowlah, while in America, Mont- 
calm captured the important fortress of Oswego for 
the F'rench (August). In Europe it became clear 
that the treaty with Prussia would entail heavy' 
responsibilities ; Frederick asserted, prematurely in 
fact, that the defensive alliance between Austria and 
France had grown into the famous coalition of les 
trois cotillons (Elizabeth of Russia, Maria Theresa, 
and the Pompadour), who, together with Saxony, 
had conceived an elaborate scheme for the division 
of his entire possessions. Before the year was out, 
the Prussian King had occupied-Saxony and defeated 
the Austrians at Lobositz (October 1st). It is not 



1757] Pitt Attains Power. 89 

surprising that contemporary and later historians 
should describe this year as one of the most humiliat- 
ing in English history ; England's only ally was 
launched upon a struggle so unequal that it seemed 
inconceivable that his little kingdom should survive, a 
naval rebuff had shaken confidence in the chief arm 
of defence, important losses in East and West had 
caused a great diminution of empire, while the 
island itself was protected by hired mercenaries from 
Hanover and Hesse. 

In the political world at home, events occurred 
which, in combination with these greater difficulties, 
so greatly impressed Parliament that Newcastle was 
compelled to resign, though his majority still re- 
mained secure. Popular agitation always produced 
its effect on the Parliaments of the eighteenth 
century. Both Pitt and his great son were strength- 
ened by this obscurely working but manifestly 
potent force. Other causes, within the ringed fence 
of the privileged classes, were working for Pitt at this 
time. The heir to the throne came of age, and after 
some blundering negotiations by Newcastle and 
Hardwicke, a new opposition Court was firmly estab- 
lished. The influence of the Princess Dowager and 
Lord Bute remained secure, and was thrown upon 
the side of Pitt. To add to Newcastle's embarrass- 
ment, the Chief Justice died, and Murray insisted on 
being appointed to his place. The Premier bid 
higher and higher with offers of place and pensions 
to persuade Murray to stay in the House of Com- 
mons; all the offers were declined and the Ministry 
was bereft of its ablest apologist. Finally, Fox, who 



go William Pitt, [1754- 

had never trusted Newcastle and who hoped to se- 
cure greater power by other arrangements, resigned 
his office, and the timid and blundering Minister was 
left face to face with an angry people. 

Having once more quarrelled with Fox, Newcastle 
hoped that he might again turn to Fox's rival. Fox 
had presented a memorial to the King,* stating the 
ground of his resignation, and intimating that he 
supposed his place would be offered to Pitt, which 
he hoped was in negotiation. His view was that 
Pitt would not consent to join Newcastle, and that 
the Premier being thus isolated, a new coalition 
might be formed between Pitt and himself. In a 
letter to Hardwicke,f Newcastle gives an account 
of his interview with the King. 

" I found the King in good humour. . . . ' I (the King) 
knew a person of consequence, sense and good intentions 
(which person I know -to be my Lord Hyde, and honest 
Munchausen told it the King this morning), said that 
there were but three things — to call in Pitt — to make up 
with my own family — and, my Lord, I have forgot the 
third. Pitt (says the person) is a man, that when once he 
has taken a post, will go thro' with it steadily, and more 
ably than Fox.' ' That, Sir,' says I, ' eve'rybody says.' 
I then shewed the King a proper extract of your Lord- 
ship's letter, which had such an effect that His Majesty 
ordered me immediately, or gave me leave, to have Mr. 
Pitt sounded, whether he would come and support the 
King's affairs, and be Secretary of State but that was not 
to be raised at first ; but what was more, that if he would^ 

* Grenville Papers, i., 174. 
f Harris's JIardwicke, iii., 63. 



1757] Pitt Attains Power, 91 

he should meet with or have a good reception. These were 
the King's own words, and great use may be made of 
them — they must make an impression. . . . The King 
asked me, ' Suppose Pitt will not serve with you ?' ' Then, 
Sir, I must go.* . . . My Lord Holdefness and I 
went together to Lady Yarmouth, whom we found quite 
altered, saying good things of Pitt." 

Hardwicke was deputed to see Pitt, and on Octo- 
ber 19th the interview took place. " We fought all 
the weapons through (writes the Chancellor), but his 
final answer was totally negative. He was very po- 
lite, and full of professions to me, but the great 
obstacles are the Duke of Newcastle and measures ; 
and without change of both, 't is impossible for him 
to come." * Pitt asserted that in order to reassure 
and reanimate the people of England, another head 
of administration was necessary. The party of Fox 
was jubilant when they heard that Pitt had decided 
not to accept office, while Newcastle and Hardwicke 
appear to have believed that Pitt and Fox were 
acting in concert. The Opposition leader, whose 
personal importance was at last being clearly de- 
monstrated, endeavoured to pave the way to favour 
with the King. He paid a visit to Lady Yarmouth, 
the reigning mistress of the day, a woman of Hano- 
verian charms, whose influence was greatly courted 
by politicians. Pitt had not previously visited her, 
which, as Hardwicke said, was more remarkable than 
that he should visit her now. What occurred at this 
unique interview is unhappily not known. Pitt was 



To Royston, October 21, 1756. 



92 William Pitt, [1754- 

excluded from all direct communication with his 
sovereign, and it was important to him that at this 
moment a veracious account of his policy should be 
given to the King. It is evident, from Newcastle's 
letter to Hardwicke, that before this visit, Lady- 
Yarmouth had come to take a more favourable view 
of Pitt than she had previously entertained ; * we 
know nothing of any influence in his favour which 
had before this visit been brought to bear upon her, 
nor is it at all clear that the King was greatly affected 
by any admonitions which Lady Yarmouth may have 
offered on Pitt's behalf. 

Newcastle had said that if Pitt would not serve 
under him he must resign ; but he found it difficult 
to relinquish power, and he was urged by Hardwicke 
and Lyttleton to continue in the face of Fox and 
Pitt. A despairing effort to secure a nominal chief 
who would work with Hardwicke and himself led 
Newcastle to make great offers to Granville and 
Egmont. Granville was old and pressed for money, 
and he preferred his present position to an oppor- 
tunity for which in earlier days he would have paid 
a high price. " I will be hanged a little before I take 
your place rather than a little after," said he. The 
inevitable had to be faced, and Newcastle at last 
informed the King that he must resign. The King 
sent for Fox and told him to try if Pitt would join 
with him. 



* But, on the day before his resignation, Fox wrote to Lord Digby : 
" Lady Yarmouth denied any thought of Pitt ever having been sug- 
gested to the King. I said with truth that I was very sorry for it. 
She then pressed me with really great force (to stay in)," Digby 
MSS., Hist. MSS., 8 Rep., App. i. 



1757] Pitt Attains Power. 93 

Fox, the next day, went to the Prince's lev^e, and, 
taking Pitt aside at tlie head of the stairs, said to him : 

*'* Are you going to Stowe? I ask because I beUeve 
you will have a message of consequence by persons of 
consequence.' ' You surprise me,' said Pitt ; * are you 
to be of the number?' Fox: ' I don't know.' Pitt: 
' One likes to say things to men of sense, and of your 
great sense rather than others ; and yet it is difficult 
even to you.' Fox : ' What ! You mean you will not 
act with me as a Minister?' Pitt : 'I do.' And then, 
to soften the abruptness of the declaration, left Fox with 
saying he hoped Fox would take an active part, which 
his health would not permit him to do.* ** 

The King now sent for the Duke of Devonshire, 
a man of great influence, probity, and common- 
sense, and ordered him to form a Ministry and if 
possible to reconcile Pitt with Fox. The Duke had 
been friendly with Fox and his inclinations were en- 
tirely in favour of the old Whig party, but he 
realised that Fox's unpopularity was great, and that 
Pitt had favour with the people. Fox began to see 
that Pitt was a man much more to be feared than 
Newcastle, and he did all in his power to persuade 
Devonshire to form a Ministry drawn mainly from 
the Bedford and old Whig corps. His plan was to 
admit Pitt as Secretary but to cut down his sup- 
porters, to exclude Legge from ofBce, and himself 



* Walpole's Memoirs of Geo7'ge II., ii,, 262. Fox wrote to Lord 
George Sackville : " Mr. Pitt is arrogant, and I think dishonest, he 
takes the whole upon him .... I will endeavour to make his 
administration as little detrimental as may be." Hist. MSS., 9 
Rep., App. 3, p. 10. 



94 Williafn Pitt, [1754- 

to become Chancellor of the Exchequer. In calmer 
times the plan might have succeeded, but with so 
strong a popular demand for more efficient govern- 
ment, and for inquiry into the maladministration 
which had lost Minorca, such a reconstruction as 
Fox plotted would have been disastrous, and if the 
King had been involved in it, might have created a 
threatening situation. Devonshire was persuaded 
at the last moment to reject the whole plan ;- he 
told the King he would accept office on November 
3rd, and negotiated frankly with Pitt. Newcastle 
gave up the seals on November nth, and was 
followed by Hardwicke on November 19th. There 
still remained difficulties to be overcome. The King 
had been alarmed that a man such as Pitt, *' who 
says he has not even read Wicquefort," should be 
Secretary of State, and was especially distressed 
that he should demand the northern province of 
foreign affairs, which included Hanover. Pitt 
yielded on this point and took the southern prov- 
ince, Lord Holderness remaining as Secretary for 
the north ; Temple went to the Admiralty, Legge 
became Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Gren- 
ville. Treasurer of the Navy, and the great seal was 
put into commission. The Duke of Bedford went 
to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant. The changes were 
indeed so few that Temple and Pitt were alone in 
the Cabinet, the remaining members being followers 
of either Fox or Newcastle. Devonshire, the 
nominal head, acted loyally with Pitt. The new 
Ministers had some difficulty in finding seats. Pitt 
himself could not continue to sit for Aldburgh, but 




Copyright 



Walker & Cockerell. 



WILLIAM PITT. 

FROM THE PAINTING BY W. HOARE IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 



1757] Pitt Attains Power, 95 

he was elected for Okehampton, Lyttleton's former 
constituency. Pitt's old friend, on going out of 
ofifice with Newcastle, had been raised to the 
peerage. 

Parliament met on December 2d, and the King's 
speech displayed the change of spirit in the new 
Ministry. The addresses from towns and counties 
in favour of strict inquiry into the loss of Minorca 
were described as " signal proofs how dearly my 
subjects tender my honour," it was announced that 
the foreign troops were under orders to return 
to Germany, and the scheme for a national militia 
was recommended to Parliament. In the debate on 
the address 

" Mr. Pitt made an artful, able speech, and represented 
the state of affairs abroad and at home as bad as pos- 
sible, told us he was afraid we would be beat next sum- 
mer, talked of making great efforts this year, and when 
you had done all you could for yourselves, then you 
must see how far you could afford to act upon the con- 
tinent, that you must go as far as the interests of this 
country were combined with those of the Powers on the 
continent, for combined they were."* 

The first matter of importance arising was the 
fate of Admiral Byng. The court-martial found that 
he "did not do his utmost " to relieve St. Philip's 
Castle, to attack the French fleets, or to assist the 
English ships engaged. By the twelfth article of 
the Act under which he was tried, the punishment 
for such failure was death, with no alternative left 

*Digby to Lord Digby, Hist. MSS., 8 Rep., App. 4., 222. 



96 William Pitt. [1754- 

to the discretion of the Court, and the sentence of 
death was therefore passed, but the Admiral was 
recommended to mercy and was expressly acquitted 
of cowardice or disaffection. The popular feeling 
roused by the loss of Minorca was not assuaged by 
this verdict, and though a great effort was made to 
save Byng by some politicians, amongst whom 
Horace Walpole was honourably conspicuous, and 
by Pitt and Temple, the members of the former 
Ministry felt that the punishment of the Admiral 
might screen themselves, and great influence was 
brought upon the King to prevent his commuting 
the sentence. Pitt and Temple showed courage and 
honesty ; they braved the King, whose good-will 
was essential to them, and they ignored the violent 
mob anger against the Admiral, though it was popu- 
lar support which had brought them into office. 
Temple showed characteristic bluntness and lack of 
diplomacy, roughly insinuating to the King that his 
Majesty's conduct at Oudenarde resembled Byng's 
at Minorca. Pitt told the King that the House of 
Commons wished that a pardon should be granted. 
" You have taught me to look for the sense of my 
subjects in another place than in the House of Com- 
mons," was the King's answer. The efforts for 
humanity were ineffectual, and on March 14, 1757, 
Admiral Byng was shot. Dans ce pays gi it est bon 
de titer de temps en temps un Amir al pour eticoiirager 
les autres, wrote Voltaire in Candide. Pitt's declar- 
ation in the House was characteristic in its pride 
and eloquence. " May I fall when I refuse pity to 
such a suit as Mr. Keppel's, justifying a man who 



1757] Pitt Attains Power, 97 

lies in captivity and the shadow of death ! I thank 
God I feel something more than popularity, I feel 
justice."* 

Vigorous measures were taken for the war. Sup- 
plies for the year 1757 amounted to ^8,355,320, an 
increase of more than a million on the previous year ; 
fifty-five thousand men were granted for the navy 
and forty-five thousand for the army. Squadrons 
were immediately dispatched to India and the West 
Indies, and Pitt announced that he intended to em- 
ploy the whole British fleet. The Militia Act was 
passed by the Lords and provided for the training 
of thirty-two thousand three hundred and forty men. 
The measure had received much popular support on 
being proposed, but was for a time after its enact- 
ment greatly feared and disliked, as it was beheved 
by the people that they might be compelled to serve 
abroad. The most striking of Pitt's measures was 
the enlistment of Highland regiments. Two thou- 
sand men were raised for the American service, and 
placed under the command of their natural leaders, 
the heads of their clans. Eighty non-commissioned 
ofificers who could speak Gaelic were drafted into the 
new regiments from the existing Scottish force. 
This measure had been previously suggested by 
Scottish gentlemen, but Pitt deserves the credit due 
to the first Minister who had sufficient courage and 
sagacity to trust the Highlanders. By this one act 
he assuaged the discontent of a brave people and 
added to the British army troops which have never 
been excelled in all the military virtues. The con- 

* Walpole's Memoirs of George II. , i. , 349. 
7 



98 William Pitt. [1754- 

trast between Newcastle purchasing Hessians and 
Pitt enlisting Highlanders well illustrates the differ- 
ent qualities of the two men. Newcastle had pro- 
vided one battalion for America ; Pitt sent eight, and 
largely increased the Royal Artillery and the 
Marines. 

Pitt himself proposed that a sum of ;^20o,ooo 
should be granted in support of Hanover and the 
King of Prussia ; the inconsistency of such a measure 
with his earlier declamations against the Electorate, 
was apparently great, and Fox did not lose the op- 
portunity of criticism. It is very remarkable that 
the House passed the vote nemine co7ttradicente, and 
that the nation appears to have lost none of its con- 
fidence in Pitt because of this change in policy. 
The inconsistency is glaring, and is not altered be- 
cause the money was to go chiefly to Prussia, as Pitt 
had actually opposed the Westminster Convention 
with Frederick. His opposition to that Convention 
was a mistake, and he now realised that it was a 
mistake. He began to trust Frederick, whom he 
described a few months later as that King who saw 
all, did all, knew all, did everything, was everything ! 
But he never approved the plan of helping Hanover 
by going to market for German Princes. " Don't go 
on subsidising little Princes here and there, and 
fancy that altogether they will make a King of 
Prussia." ^ 

The Ministry was popular with the country, but it 
lacked a majority in Parliament and favour at Court. 
The King objected to the lengthy speeches of Pitt 

* Walpole's Memoirs of George II., iii., 17. 



1757] Pitt Attains Power, 99 

in the closet, and the bad manners of Temple ; he 
leaned more and more on Cumberland, who was to 
take command of the Hanoverian army, to whom he 
looked to save his Electorate, as he had saved his 
crown. The great bulk of the Whigs were support- 
ers of Newcastle or Fox, and Pitt must quickly have 
realised that he could not hope to carry on the gov- 
ernment for long. The Leicester House influence, 
the small body which followed the Grenville cousin- 
hood, and the preference of the Tories for him 
which resulted partly from his strong patriotism and 
belief in England's power to defend herself, and 
partly from the Leicester House good-will, these 
were the only sources of strength to Pitt. Lyttleton 
wrote to his brother early in 1757: 

" Mr. Pitt is accused of a coalition with the Tories ; 
and certain it is that he has become the Cocoa-Tree 
toast, from being the object of their aversion last year. 
What has caused the change it is hard to say. He de- 
nies any promise of advantage to them ; but the alarm 
has been taken so strong by the Whigs that if the Duke 
of Newcastle and my Lord Hardwicke would have joined 
with Mr. Fox to turn him out, it is certain they might 
have done it before this time, and may do it to-morrow." * 

It was, however, not by any adverse Parliamentary 
event that the Ministry was overthrown, but by the 
advice of Cumberland, who requested the King to 
dismiss Pitt before he started to take command of 
the army in Hanover. On April 5th, Holderness 
informed Temple that the King no longer required 

* " This new administration has the Tories and nothing but the 
Tories to support them." Hist. MSS., 8 Rep., App. 4, p. 223. 

LofC. 



too 



William Pitt. L1754- 



his services; Pitt and Legge declined to resign, and 
they too were dismissed a few days later. The na- 
tion showed its resentment against this action, and 
its confidence in the men dismissed, by strong ex- 
pressions of feeling. The great towns sent the free- 
dom of their cities to Pitt, and, in the famous phrase 
of Horace Walpole, " for some weeks it rained gold 
boxes." The tenure of office from December to 
April had been too brief for any great achievement, 
but it is evident that the nation recognised and wel- 
comed a new and higher spirit in the administration 
of its affairs ; something at least had been done, in 
Pitt's own words, to reassure and reanimate the 
people of England. 

The interregnum which followed the dismissal of 
Pitt is one of the most curious incidents in English 
history : Devonshire remained at the Treasury, 
Winchelsea took the Admiralty, and Holderness 
conducted the work of the Secretaries of State, but 
in reality there was no administration for eleven 
weeks, while a formidable war was being waged. 
The inquiry into the loss of Minorca, which was 
managed by the Townshends, caused Newcastle and 
Fox to view the political situation with fear ; they 
would not act together, and though Newcastle was 
urged by Hardwicke and others to take office with- 
out Pitt or Fox, he wisely declined the ordeal. Fox 
had the credit of advising Cumberland to secure the 
dismissal of Pitt, and the overthrow of the Govern- 
ment in the midst of a crisis had not improved his 
reputation for patriotism. Pitt observed, during the 
progress of the inquiry, a cold neutrality ; events 



1757] Pitt Attains Power. loi 

were serving his turn. The inquiry clearly showed 
that the late Government had been culpably negli- 
gent, and both his rivals were involved in the inevit- 
able blame. 

The inquiry ended without direct censure. A 
long series of negotiations followed, and a union be- 
tween Pitt and Newcastle was secured by the good 
offices of Chesterfield, and on June 29th the new Min- 
istry kissed hands. 

It was a combination of all the Powers with Pitt 
supreme. Newcastle took the Treasury. Fox be- 
came Paymaster on the understanding that he was 
to do nothing but receive his salary ; Legge was 
Chancellor of the Exchequer ; Temple, Privy Seal ; 
and Anson, to the chagrin of the city, was restored 
to the Admiralty ; Pratt, afterwards illustrious as 
Camden and the friend of Chatham, became Attor- 
ney-General, while Pitt was Secretary of State with 
Holderness, who could never rival him, as his co- 
secretary. The inclusion of Fox in a subordinate 
office abated all opposition ; Newcastle, commander 
of the parliamentary battalions, was united to Pitt 
who enjoyed the confidence of the nation. " I bor- 
rowed the Duke of Newcastle's majority to carry on 
the business of the country," said Pitt, and an excel- 
lent bargain he made by leaving patronage to his 
colleague while he retained power for himself. 

He was at last in the saddle. The emergency 
which England had to meet was of the gravest, but 
was to be met in the spirit of confidence. '* My 
Lord," he had said to the Duke of Devonshire, " I 
believe that I can save this country and that no one 



I02 WilliaTn Pitt. [1754-1757] 

else can." The situation was perilous for England, 
not only because she had lost Minorca and was 
threatened in India and America, but because in the 
beginning of this war a strange timidity and hesita- 
tion affected her officers. The temper of the two 
nations on the eve of the struggle is reflected in the 
famous prophecy of Chesterfield, and in the opinion 
of one who knew much of France. " Whoever is in, 
or whoever is out, I am sure we are undone both at 
home and abroad," wrote Chesterfield, ''we are no 
longer a nation. I never yet saw so dreadful a pros- 
pect." On the other hand. Sir Andrew Mitchell re- 
ported from M. de Knyphausen that the French 
designed an attack on Madras, and were sending 
more troops to America. " When I hinted that 
there were vast designs to be executed in the East 
and West Indies at the same time by the French, 
who were not yet masters of the sea, he answered, 
' They are so flushed with the conquest of Port Ma- 
hon, and their successes in North America, that they 
are capable of undertaking anything.* " 




\. 




CHAPTER IV. 

PITT'S WAR MINISTRY. 
1757-1761. 

WHEN Pitt resumed office, the diplomatic 
preparations of Europe were complete, 
and it was possible to compute the strength 
of the two opposing sides. Frederick, in his justifi- 
cation of the invasion of Saxony, had inaccurately- 
asserted that a combination existed with the object 
of partitioning his kingdom. At the time when the 
invasion was made, the alliance between France and 
Austria was purely defensive, and Louis had not 
agreed to join the extensive scheme of Maria The- 
resa and the Czarina Elizabeth. It was the invasion 
of Saxony which determined the French King to 
adopt an offensive alliance. The daughter of the 
Saxon King, Augustus III., was the wife of the 
Dauphin, while France had guaranteed Saxony at 
the great settlement of Westphalia. Frederick's in- 
sult to so close an ally of France induced Louis to 
accede at last to the plan of partition which Maria 
Theresa, Elizabeth, and the Pompadour so ardently 
desired. The Russian and Hungarian sovereigns 

103 



I04 William Pitt. [1757- 

were formally allied against Prussia by the Treaty of 
St. Petersburg which was signed in February, 1757, 
by which each of the Imperial courts agreed to fur- 
nish eighty thousand men against Frederick ; Eliza- 
beth engaged herself to continue hostilities until 
Silesia and Glatz were recovered by Maria Theresa, 
while Austria was to pay an annual subsidy, and, by 
an understanding not incorporated in the treaty, was 
to try and secure Courland for Russia. By the 
Treaty of Stockholm Sweden joined the coalition and 
promised twenty thousand men. The second Treaty 
of Versailles between France and Austria was signed 
on May i, 1757. Louis promised an annual subsidy, 
one hundred and five thousand men, and the pay of 
ten thousand German mercenaries. Maria Theresa 
promised eighty thousand men. France was to be 
rewarded by the cession of towns and ports in the 
Netherlands. The details of the scheme for the par- 
tition of Frederick's possessions show that the inten- 
tion of the two Powers was to reduce Prussia to 
the rank of a second-rate German electorate. The 
great European league was joined by Bavaria, the 
Elector Palatine, and other German Princes. Den- 
mark and the Dutch provinces, notwithstanding the 
pressure of England and Prussia, remained neutral. 

The French King's assent to this alliance was one 
of the most momentous resolves in history. Not 
content with his quarrel with England, with the de- 
fence of his great possessions in the East and West 
against a Power whose naval predominance was 
clearly understood, Louis entered into the Continen- 
tal war which was destined to drain the resources of 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 105 

his country and to rob his armies of their unequalled 
reputation. The reward was great, but it was dis- 
tant and problematical. Yet in May, 1757, it may 
well have seemed certain that the great European 
countries would be successful in crushing Great 
Britain and Prussia. The war had opened with un- 
expected glory ; England had been defeated on her 
own element and in America, while her politicians 
seemed divided and irresolute. On the continent, 
although the Prussian army had been increased, 
through the forced enlistment of Saxons, to two 
hundred thousand men, the allies could in theory 
command three times that number, and during this 
year did actually place in the field three hundred and 
four thousand.* So great a superiority in numbers 
was set off against Frederick's brilliant generalship. 
The population of Prussia was only five millions, of 
Great Britain not more than nine millions, while 
that of France and her allies was one hundred mil- 
lions. Kaunitz had everything to gain and nothing 
to lose by the French alliance, which was the tri- 
umph of his diplomacy ; Louis pledged his resources, 
and burdened his army, but he may reasonably have 
believed that his kingdom was equal to the double 
strain of war by land and sea, and if the plans of the 
alliance had been completely successful the position 
of France in Europe would have been as great as in 

* Bestujef , the Russian Chancellor, made the following calculation 
of the forces at the disposal of the great European Powers in 1756 : 
Russia, 331,222 men in all, 130,000 effectives available for offensive 
purposes in Europe; France, 211,000; Austro-Hungary, 139,000; 
Saxony, 18,000 ; Poland, 16,000 ; Prussia, 145,000 ; and Great 
Britain, 10,000 for Continental war. — Rambaud, Russes et Frusses. 



io6 William Pitt, [1757- 

the days of Louis XIV. With Prussia destroyed, 
how long delayed would be any threatening union 
of Germany, and how powerful would be the House 
of Bourbon, with France, Spain, and the Netherlands 
under its rule. With the ambition of aggrandise- 
ment there were mixed considerations of religion. 
The two Catholic Powers were united against the 
Protestant kingdoms, and were aided by the North- 
ern Empire which was guardian of another Ortho- 
doxy. Though it would be an error to lay too much 
stress on the religious aspect of this contest, yet as 
a fact the Roman and Greek Churches made war 
against the common enemy of Protestantism, which 
stood for the disintegrating power of free thought. 
The division of Europe, apparently the accident of 
diplomatic chance, was in reality a division between 
the progressive and reactionary states. The motives 
which urged Louis, Maria Theresa, and Elizabeth 
were the ruling forces in the international system 
which was drawing near its end — they were motives 
based upon dynastic considerations and the will of 
princes. England and Prussia on the other hand 
were animated by the spirit of nationality, the one 
fighting for the expansion of her race, the other for 
her very existence as a nation. When Louis made 
his choice, he signed the death warrant of his own 
dynasty. Louis XIV., by his wars, made the ancient 
monarchy a glory to the French people ; Louis XV., 
by his wars, made it a byword and a reproach. 

The Government of France had sunk to the lowest 
level. The weak and ignoble King, incompetent to 
govern, irresolute in judgment, slothful in execution, 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry, 107 

was governed by his mistress, Madame de Pompa- 
dour. It was she who had diverted him from the 
wise course of devoting all his power to the contest 
with England ; her pride desired an association with 
Maria Theresa, and though Frederick had made 
many attempts to purchase her influence she was as 
devoted an enemy to the Prussian King as Maria 
Theresa herself. Her malign influence on the des- 
tiny of France acted not only by the policy she had 
induced Louis to adopt, but throughout the war she 
changed Ministers and commanders at her will, and 
by a perverse fortune chose her favourites, in almost 
every case, from the incompetent. The whims of 
a courtesan directed the fate of nations. On the 
threshold of war disastrous changes were introduced. 
The naval department since 1754 had been under 
Machault, who realised the necessity of strengthen- 
ing the instrument of sea-power, and had by rapid 
building raised the navy to sixty ships of the line, 
with thirty-one frigates. By the Pompadour's influ- 
ence he was dismissed in 1757, and succeeded by 
Moras, who had bought the succession. The favour- 
ite also expelled Argenson, a capable and experi- 
enced War Minister, the reversion of whose office 
had been bought by the Marquis de Paulmy, a 
young man of thirty-four with no knowledge of his 
new duties. *' It was soon seen," wrote Bernis, " that 
the hands which held the reins of the War Office 
and the Marine, were too feeble ; confusion and 
licence reigned supreme in these departments." * 

* Memoire de Bernis ^ cited by Perkins, France under Louis XV., 
ii., 89. 



io8 William Pitt, [1757- 

The system on which the French army was admin- 
istered was as bad as the system of taxation ; each 
company was organised and paid by its captain, with 
the result that the soldiers were ill-paid, ill- clad, and 
ill-fed.* Promotion was the perquisite of rank, not 
the reward of service, and many boys of seventeen 
were colonels of regiments. The chief commands 
were given to the Pompadour's favourites, who was 
as powerful in France as Frederick was in Prussia and 
as Pitt in England. If there had been in France a 
government even as efficient and disinterested as 
that of Russia and Austria at this time, the result of 
the war must have been different ; the demoralisation 
of their chief antagonist was the safety of England 
and Prussia. 

It is on his conduct of the war that Pitt's fame 
rests. During four years his will directed the Eng- 
lish forces, and when he resigned office his country 
had risen to a position which was greater than any 
of which Elizabeth or Cromwell had dreamed. The 
expansion of England had proceeded steadily from 
the days of the great Tudor Queen ; her naval pre- 
dominance had been established under Cromwell, 
and constantly strengthened ; her armies in the 
struggle with France had won great glory under 
William and Marlborough ; her wealth and com- 

* The officers were the bane of the French army. De Broglie wrote 
of their entire ignorance of military details. Their luxury was inor- 
dinate. Richelieu when only colonel required 72 mules for his per- 
sonal baggage and 35 horses for his own use. One captain took 14 
horses and 5 valets ! Contrast this with Frederick's well-known reg- 
ulations, forbidding even a silver spoon. His own retinue was not 
so large as that of a French general. 



1761] Pitfs War Mmistry. 109 

merce were rapidly increasing, and were both cause 
and consequence of sea-power. But the prospect of 
her colonial empire was clouded by the rivalry of 
France; it was not yet decided beyond dispute 
whether the French or the English race should con- 
trol North America and the Indies. England en- 
joyed the immeasurable advantage of predominant 
power on the sea, but she had enjoyed that advant- 
age in previous wars against France which had ended 
indecisively. In the war which ended in the Peace 
of Aix-la-Chapelle, '' the British naval forces, without 
any rivals, passed unmolested over the seas. In one 
year they are said to have taken from French com- 
merce ;^7,ooo,ooo sterling. Yet this sea-power, which 
might have seized French and Spanish colonies, 
made few conquests from want of unity and persist- 
ence in the direction given to it." ^ In the unity 
and persistence of his direction of naval power, Pitt 
has never been surpassed by any statesman, and no 
one until his day realised how mighty a weapon the 
fleet may be. His comprehensive mind took in the 
whole world, and other nations perceived for the first 
time that the British navy could simultaneously de- 
fend the British shores and attack the enemies' dis- 
tant maritime possessions in all parts of the world. 
The main plan of naval policy under Pitt and Anson 
is clear. A strong fleet watched Brest and the 
other Atlantic ports, while another lay near Gibral- 
tar to prevent the Toulon fleet either joining that of 
Brest or conveying reinforcements to America ; on 

* Lapeyrouse-Benfils, Hist, de la Marine Francaise^ cit. Mahan, 
Injltience of Sea-Power^ p. 280. 



no William Pitt. [1757- 

these depended the defence of England, and both 
fleets were severely tested during the war. The im- 
portant islands of Guadaloupe and Martinico were a 
great source of strength to France, and for the pro- 
tection of trade against the numerous French priva- 
teers there were British squadrons at the Jamaica 
and Leeward Islands' stations. These stations were 
reinforced by Pitt during his first Ministry, as also 
was Admiral Watson who commanded in the East 
Indies. In America, the fleet used the harbours of 
New York and Halifax, while the French possessed 
only one base, Louisburg, on the Atlantic. Quebec, 
though regarded as impregnable from the sea, was 
unavailable during the winter, and when Louisburg 
was reduced it was impossible for the Canadians to 
look for further assistance from the sea. In addi- 
tion to the defence of England by the blockade of 
Toulon and Brest, and the offensive operations 
against the naval strongholds of France, the fleet 
was used from time to time in bombardments of 
French coast towns which were intended to draw off 
French troops from the German war. 

What is most of all remarkable in Pitt as a War 
Minister is that victory never relaxed his efforts ; the 
achievement of one success led him to plan another ; 
his designs grew wider, his efforts more strenuous. 
When he came into ofifice his mind was fixed upon 
the recovery of what England had lost, but each fol- 
lowing success led him to prosecute the war on a 
wider scale. He began by offering Gibraltar in or- 
der to secure Spain as an ally against France ; he 
ended by counselling his sovereign to make war 



1761] Pitfs War Ministry. 1 1 1 

against both Spain and France. He began with the 
conviction that England must restrict the contest to 
the sea or her efforts would be too great ; he ended 
by waging strenuous war upon the continent, as well 
as against all French colonial possessions. He was 
the first to realise the strength and resources of his 
country, and the readiest to expend both blood and 
treasure for the great national objects he pursued. 
An insatiable ambition, a sublime courage, made 
him the inspiring genius of the British arms, but he 
added to these heroic qualities an untiring industry 
in his ministerial office, a strong will which coerced 
the Admiralty and War Office into dispatch and or- 
der, and drew from every servant of the nation his 
proper service. When experience of command had 
brought out Pitt's power of action, and he had 
grown to his full stature in the eyes of the world, 
his name became an inspiration to every British sol- 
dier and sailor, and as was said at the time, no man 
ever entered his closet who did not come out of it a 
braver man. It will not be possible in these pages 
to give more than a summary account of the cam- 
paigns of the war, but the barest outline of events 
will show the magnitude of the task Pitt had upon 
his shoulders. On the continent he could trust 
Prince Ferdinand, and his main duty was to find 
men and money for that Prince and an annual sub- 
sidy for Frederick. In the Indian war he could do 
nothing more than assist by reinforcements. But the 
direction of the fleets, of the numerous campaigns 
in America, of the conquests in other parts of the 
globe, came immediately under Pitt's cognisance and 



112 William Pitt. 



[1757- 



will ; the Parliamentary orator, almost entirely with- 
out experience of administration, was faced by the 
most absorbing and critical problems of complex ad- 
ministration and strategical decision. 

There are many traditional stories illustrating 
Pitt's dictatorial but singularly effective manner of 
infusing energy into the Government departments. 
The best contemporary evidence is in the following 
passage from the manuscript memoirs of Sir George 
Colebrooke, a merchant and contractor. 

" More than once I was summoned to the Treasury to 
give an account of the state of the provisions, and of the 
money, for the Army, Mr. West giving for reason that 
Mr. Pitt threatened the Duke (of Newcastle) that if at 
any time a want of either should be found, he would im- 
peach him in the ensuing session General 

Harvey waiting on Mr. Pitt to take his leave, Mr. Pitt 
asked him whether he had obtained everything he 
wanted, and the General answered, not. Mr. Pitt de- 
sired him to enumerate what he wanted and immediate- 
ly rang his bell for Mr. Wood, who in the names of the 
different Boards signified to their officers His Majesty's 
commands for the despatch of what was required, and 
in four days General Harvey had in readiness what he 
had been as many months soliciting." 

The course of the war during 1757 gave little hope 
of the future triumphs of Great Britain. The minis- 
terial interregnum was responsible for a lack of 
effectiveness and combination in the use of the naval 
resources of the country which, if it had continued, 
would have made the war a repetition of the last. 
The blockade of French ports was not effectively 



1761] Pitt 'i* War Ministry. 113 

carried out, and during the first four months of the 
year Beausremont sailed for Louisburg, De la Motte 
for the same port, D'Ache, with Lally's troops, for 
the East Indies, and Kersaint for the West Indies 
by the west coast of. Africa. All these squadrons 
arrived without mishap at their destinations, with 
the result that British operations were delayed. 
This was perhaps the most ominous incident of the 
year. On the other hand, Parliament had shown a 
ready disposition to provide the supplies necessary 
for a vigorous war : the total amount granted for the 
year was ;^8, 350,325, w^hich included provision for 
fifty-five thousand seamen, and eighty thousand land 
forces, and a sum of ^575,056 for foreign subsidies 
and the pay of foreign troops. The last amount 
included ;^200,ooo *' for assisting his Majesty in 
forming and maintaining during the present year, an 
army of observation, for the just and necessary de- 
fence of his Majesty's electoral dominions ; . . . . 
and towards enabling his Majesty to fulfil his en- 
gagements with the King of Prussia, for the security 
of the Empire against the attacks of foreign armies." 
The sum for the services of the year included £ i ,000,- 
000 on account, to enable his Majesty to defray any 
extraordinary expenses of the war. The last was 
proposed during Lord Waldegrave's nominal Minis- 
try, on the day on which the news of Frederick's 
victory of Prague arrived in London. Pitt was in- 
clined to oppose it because the gift was offered with- 
out restriction ; if it was to be confined to Great 
Britain and America, he would consent to give a 
million, but now this might be dispensed to the 



114 William Pitt. [1757- 

troops of Hanover, though we had already given 
them i^200,ooo. The King of Prussia was worth 
subsidising; but he dreaded the war being trans- 
ferred to Flanders — he had rather face it in Ger- 
many.* This was significant of Pitt's future policy, 
but it was some time before he really threw himself 
into a German war. As a matter of fact Pitt him- 
self had the spending of the million, and within a 
few weeks of his return to office ;^ 100,000 was sent 
to Cumberland, to feed his beaten army, and ;^20,- 

000 to the Landgrave of Hesse. '' This concession," 
he writes to Grenville, " I have judged it advisable 
to make upon the grounds of a fatal necessity . . . 

1 trust you and Lord Temple will be of opinion, 
upon fully weighing the whole extensive considera- 
tion, that I have not done wrong." f Events shaped 
Pitt's policy, and although the total result of the 
campaigning in 1757 was discouraging, yet before 
the year's close the fundamental principles of his 
war measures clearly emerge. 

In the last chapter an account was given of the 
three expeditions in America in 1755. During 1756 
the French gained further advantages. The Mar- 
quis de Montcalm arrived in May to take command 
of the French forces. He was an able and energetic 
general, of chivalrous bravery, a leader who endeared 
himself to his men by his great qualities. His is 
the most shining and almost the only heroic figure 
that appears in the French ranks throughout the 
war. The forces at his disposal consisted of four 

* Walpole's Memoirs of George II., iii., 16-18. 
I Grenville Papers (Aug. 11, 1757), i., 206. 




jOffiSnUi. 



^T. 29. 



1761] Pitt's War Mints try. 115 

thousand French regulars, two thousand Canadian 
regulars, and the native Canadian Militia. His hope 
of ultimate success could be based only on the rela- 
tive advantage of his position ; with Montreal as his 
centre he could defend without great difficulty both 
Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain. The English 
on the other hand "were forced to act on the cir- 
cumference of a vast semi-circle, in a labyrinth of 
forests without roads, and choked with every kind of 
obstruction." * Lord Loudoun arrived in July, 1756, 
to take up the English command with a force which 
Pitt had described as a '' scroll of paper " ; he dis- 
patched Webb with the 44th regiment to strengthen 
Fort Oswego, and resolved to attack Ticonderoga 
himself. But Montcalm captured and burnt Fort Os- 
wego before Webb reached it, and before Loudoun's 
attack on Ticonderoga was delivered the French 
commander had returned to the defence of that po- 
sition, and with him had a force of five thousand 
men, which made the English advance impossible. 
The loss of Oswego was a serious blow, as it was the 
one place of arms that threatened the communica- 
tions of the French with their chain of fortresses in 
the West. The campaign of 1/57 produced no bet- 
ter results than that of the previous year, but at 
least showed a bolder design. Loudoun was anxious 
to attack Louisburg, and the seven battalions Pitt 
had added to Newcastle's estimates for the Ameri- 
can service were sent to Halifax, to be used in this 
expedition. The whole scheme however ended in 
ignominious failure ; Loudoun took five thousand 

* Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe ^ i., 418. 



1 1 6 William Pitt, [1757- 

men to Halifax, where he was joined by Admiral 
Holbourne in the middle of July, but there he 
learned that the French had twenty-one sail of the 
line at Louisburg and a garrison of seven thousand. 
The English fleet was smaller by two or three of the 
line, the season was so advanced that a long siege 
was out of the question, and the general, without 
attempting an attack, sailed back with his army to 
New York, Pitt was very angry with Loudoun, but 
the real cause of failure was the delay in dispatching 
Holbourne's fleet, and in the following year Pitt was 
careful that such delay should not be repeated. 
While Loudoun was at HaHfax, Montcalm's force at 
Ticonderoga attacked Fort William Henry on Lake 
George and after a gallant defence the garrison capit- 
ulated. Thus in America during 1757 there was no 
success but yet another serious reverse. One other 
danger seriously threatened British interests ; Lou- 
doun, unfortunate in all things, was especially so in 
his relation with the American authorities and offi- 
cers, and this question also received Pitt's attention 
before the real campaign began. 

Li another part of the Empire too remote at that 
time to attract close attention in England, but not 
so distant as to escape the vigilance of Pitt, the con- 
test between French and English wore another as- 
pect. At the close of 1755, Clive arrived in Lidia to 
take up the Governorship of Fort St. David in the 
Carnatic. When the news of the tragedy of the 
Black Hole reached Madras he was chosen to com- 
mand the land forces in the expedition sent to re- 
lieve Calcutta, while Admiral Watson commanded 








Che.r<tvfees^ 



MAP OF 

iiiiiii mmm m amim^ 

1750-1760 

)m"MONTCALM and WOLFE" 

BY FRAXCIS PaRKMAN . 




1761] Pittas War Ministry. 117 

the squadron of four sail of the line. Clive quickly 
subdued the Nabob, Surajah Dowlah, and in March, 
1757, he captured the important French settlement 
of Chandernagore near Calcutta. Then followed the 
famous conspiracy with Meer Jafifier against the Na- 
bob, and the victory of Plassey (June 23, 1757) 
which made the East India Company virtually sov- 
ereign in Bengal. The brief campaign had made the 
England of Clive a greater power in India than the 
France of Dupleix had ever been. 

The Continental campaign in the earlier part of 
1757 pointed to the early success of the coalition 
against Frederick. The situation of Prussia was 
alarming. Two Austrian armies under Browne and 
Daun threatened Silesia, the Russian force under 
Apraxin was preparing to attack East Prussia, while 
before the end of March two French armies number- 
ing together one hundred thousand crossed the 
Rhine and marched towards Hanover. Frederick 
determined to attack the Austrians himself, and left 
the defence of East Prussia and Pomerania to Leh- 
waldt, while the Duke of Cumberland arrived in April 
to take command of a mixed force of sixty thousand, 
which was to defend Hanover. The King himself 
advanced into Bohemia and attacked Marshal 
Browne at Prague, on May 6th ; the Austrian army 
was defeated and forced to take refuge within the 
city of Prague. Frederick lost eighteen thousand 
while his enemy lost twenty-four thousand. Daun, 
the famous Fabian general, who was perhaps more 
successful against Frederick than any other com- 
mander in this war, marched to the relief of Prague. 



ii8 William Pitt. [1757- 

His army had increased to sixty thousand and Fred- 
erick judged that it was necessary himself to leave 
the army besieging Prague, in order to defeat Daun. 
At Kolin, with the advantages both of numbers and 
of position against them, the Prussians suffered a 
disastrous defeat, losing fourteen thousand men and 
many cannon. Frederick managed the retreat with 
success ; on June 20th the siege of Prague was raised, 
Bohemia was abandoned, and the Prussians retired 
upon Saxony. 

In East Prussia Lehwaldt was outnumbered. The 
Russians advanced steadily and on August 30th, 
Apraxin won the victory of Jaegersdorf. 

Meantime, the French had advanced under Mar- 
shal D'Estrees, and on July 26th Cumberland was 
defeated at Hastenbeck, and nearly the whole of 
Hanover and Brunswick was overrun by the French. 
It was suggested that nine thousand men in readiness 
at Chatham should be sent to Cumberland, but Pitt 
successfully opposed this. Richelieu, who displaced 
D'Estrees, could not but overpower Cumberland, 
and on September 8th, the famous convention of 
Kloster-Severn was arranged, by which it was agreed 
that the auxiliary troops from Hesse, Brunswick, and 
Saxe-Gotha should return to their respective coun- 
tries, while the Hanoverian army retired beyond the 
Elbe. The effect of this agreement was to leave 
Hanover to the French, and to free the French army 
for aggression against Frederick. Cumberland had 
no choice but to make this agreement, and eventual- 
ly it proved of great advantage to the Anglo-Prus- 
sian cause, but it was regarded by Frederick as a 




• i^oM^jiu^-, 



ItOBEKT LORD CXIVE 



1761] Pitt's War Mmistry. 119 

base surrender. The Duke was recalled, and the 
King received him with open contempt. When the 
King declared that he had given Cumberland no or- 
ders for such a treaty, Pitt replied : ** But full pow- 
ers, Sir, very full powers." * It was an act of great 
magnanimity to offer any defence for the man who 
had been his avowed enemy, but there can be no 
doubt that Cumberland was harshly treated. King 
George had for some time dallied with the tempta- 
tion of an Hanoverian neutrality, and on August 
nth had sent to his son full powers to conclude a 
separate peace or neutrality on behalf of the Elector- 
ate. These powers were given by the King as Elec- 
tor, and were technically no concern of the British 
Ministers. The situation created by the conven- 
tion was however a matter of direct British concern, 
as Frederick in plain terms remonstrated against the 
policy of Hanoverian neutrality as a desertion of 
Prussia. The Ministers formally declared that Great 
Britain had no part in the convention, and early in 
October the Cabinet, on the suggestion of Pitt, de- 
cided that, if the convention should be repudiated, 
the Electoral army should be taken into British pay. 
The King eventually repudiated it, defending his 
action on the technical ground that the French had 
infringed its terms. The incident is of importance 
in Pitt's career. It was argued at the time that this 
was an admirable opportunity for Great Britain to 
quit the Continental War ; Pitt's action shows that 

*In 1761, Pitt said in the House of Commons, "The affair of 
Kloster-Severn was only an Electoral consideration, and on that oc- 
casion the son of the King behaved with the most manly and filial 
piety." Add. MSS. 32932, f. 74. 



I20 William Pitt. [1757- 

he was determined to stand by the Prussian Alliance, 
although he was not yet ready to send an English 
army to Hanover. His readiness to take the Elec- 
toral army into English pay won him the confidence 
of the King ; it was the only available means of as- 
sisting Prussia and Pitt meant to provide a more 
efficient General than Cumberland.* 

Thus the first months of Pitt's administration were 
months of disaster in Europe and in America. No 
wonder that Pitt almost despaired. " The day is 
come," he wrote to Sir Benjamin Keene, " when the 
very inadequate benefits of the Treaty of Utrecht, 
the indelible reproach of the last generation, are be- 
come the necessary, but almost unattainable wish 
of the present, when the Empire is no more, the 
ports of the Netherlands betrayed, and the Dutch 
Barrier Treaty an empty sound, Minorca, and with 
it the Mediterranean, lost, and America itself pre- 
carious." f The situation was immediately jnet by 
diplomacy and by active aggression. Nothing could 
be better calculated to restore the spirit of England 
than a change from ignominious waiting upon the 
enemy to a policy of attack, and Pitt decided to 
assist Frederick's movements in Germany by a di- 
version against the French coast, and to prepare for 
the recovery of Minorca by seeking an alliance with 
Spain. Moved also by his constant dread of the 

* The repudiation is argued in Flassan's Diplomatie Fran^aise^ t. 
vi. pp. 98-109, and the British official justification is given in Entick 
ii. 435-439. The most informing account is in Ward's Great Brit- 
ain and Hanover (1899), pp. 190-196, and in Waddington's La 
Guerre de Sept Ans (Paris, 1899), pp. 470 seq. 

I Chatham Correspondence^ i., 251. 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 121 

union of the two Bourbon countries against Eng- 
land, he wrote to Sir Benjamin Keene (August 23, 
1757), the ambassador at Madrid, making large 
offers '' in order to engage Spain, if possible, to join 
her arms to those of his Majesty, for the obtaining 
a just and honourable peace, and mainly for recover- 
ing and returning to the Crown of England the most 
important island of Minorca." It was proposed, 
after the capture of Minorca, to exchange Gibraltar 
for that island, and further to evacuate all estab- 
lishments made on the Mosquito Shore and in the 
Bay of Honduras since the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. 
Particular stress was laid on the statement that on 
no account would England cede Gibraltar until 
Minorca was recovered. The proposed alliance was 
definitely rejected by Spain. Pitt has been blamed 
for his willingness to cede Gibraltar, as that fortress 
is undoubtedly a more valuable possession to Eng- 
land than Minorca ever could have been. But there 
are two considerations which may have made a 
Spanish alliance a matter of great importance. The 
Spanish navy had been increased to forty-six ships 
of the line and twenty-two frigates, which was a 
formidable force ; and there was a strong French 
party at Madrid which at any moment might obtain 
power and restore the traditional Bourbon system. 
In a war that was to be chiefly maritime and to be 
fought for the New World, the close friendship of 
the country which was still the greatest territorial 
power in the New World was a desirable object for 
either France or England. It is clear from his di- 
spatch that Pitt feared that Spain would not remain 



122 William Pitt. 



[1757- 



neutral, and his fear is confirmed by Keene's answer. 
*' You appear sufficiently informed of the present 
unfavourable complexion of this Court," writes the 
ambassador in his reply. Notwithstanding these 
considerations, it is fortunate for Pitt's fame that his 
offer was not accepted.* 

Pitt's first military scheme met with little more 
success than his diplomatic plan. It belonged to the 
most questionable part of his war policy, the attacks 
on the French coast. He equipped a powerful fleet 
of sixteen sail of the line under Hawke, and an army 
of ten battalions under Sir John Mordaunt, with the 
object of attacking Rochefort. The naval and mili- 
tary commanders quarrelled, and the total result of 
the expedition was the capture of the small island 
of Aix after an hour's bombardment. No attack on 
Rochefort was attempted, and the whole force re- 
turned to Spithead a month after its setting forth. 
A commission of inquiry and a war of pamphlets 
followed, and Pitt declared that the disappointment 
had broken his heart. He showed his opinion of 
the officers in command by promoting Wolfe, who 
declared that Rochefort would have been taken by 
five hundred men, over a number of his seniors. 

Cumberland reached London from Hanover on 
October I2th, and was so angered by the King's 
reception (" Here is my son who has ruined me and 
disgraced himself " ) that he resigned his appoint- 
ment as Captain-General. He was succeeded by 
Ligonier, and Lord George Sackville was appointed 

* Pitt intended to take a port on the Barbary coast in place of Gib- 
raltar. Newcastle to Hardwicke, Aug. 9, 1757. Newcastle Papers. 




MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES WOLFE. 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry, 123 

Lieutenant-General of Ordnance. The centre of 
interest during the last months of 1757 was in Ger- 
many, where Frederick, after the disaster of Kolin 
and Jaegersdorf, was to battle gloriously against in- 
calculable odds. In addition to the Austrian army 
which had taken Breslau, the key of Silesia, he had 
to meet Soubise, who had thirty-five thousand 
French, and Prince Hildburghausen's detachment of 
fifteen thousand Germans, under his command, while 
Richelieu had been set free by the convention of 
Kloster-Severn. An Austrian detachment under 
Haddick threatened Berlin itself, and obtained a 
large ransom from the city. The King was cheered 
ten days later by the news that England had de- 
cided to re-create the Hanoverian army, and to 
request that Ferdinand of Brunswick might be 
granted by Frederick as General of the same. This 
decision was pleasing to Frederick ; it promised a 
new army to counteract at least one of the French 
forces, and it showed that the lesson of bad general- 
ship had been learnt. Ferdinand of Brunswick was 
an experienced and able ofificer, and, above all, was 
likely to act loyally and efficiently with Frederick 
himself — a man not to be guided, as Cumberland 
had been, by the decision of Hanoverian ministers 
rather than by the advice of the greatest living com- 
mander. It was on the 5th of November that Fred- 
erick defeated the Soubise-Hildburghausen army at 
the battle of Rossbach, a battle memorable in the 
history of Germany as the first in which a French army 
had been utterly defeated by a purely German general 
and force, and decisive in the Seven Years' War as 



124 William Pitt, [1757- 

changing the French advance into a retreat, and 
deHvering Prussia from an enemy by a single blow. 
After Rossbach, in fact, Frederick had no more 
fighting with the French, and henceforth the war 
was divided into two parts — the Prussian struggle 
with Austria and Russia, and the French struggle 
with England and Hanover. Four days after the 
battle, Ferdinand of Brunswick received his com- 
mission as commander of the Hanoverians, and on 
November 24th announced to the troops at Stade 
that they were to form part of an allied army, and 
to be no longer " a mere army of observation." On 
November 29th he attacked the nearest French 
fortress at Harburg, his first step in the operations 
which were to drive Richelieu beyond the Rhine. 
Pitt received the news of Rossbach on November 
9th, and at once saw its importance. Parliament 
was to meet on the 15th, but the session was post- 
poned till December ist, in order that new plans 
might be considered, and a new speech from the 
throne composed. 

" It is my fixed resolution (said the King's speech) to 
apply my utmost efforts for the security of my kingdoms, 
and for the recovery and protection of the possessions 
and rights of my crown in America and elsewhere ; as 
well by the strongest exertion of our naval force, as by 
all other methods. Another great object, which I have 
at heart, is the preservation of the Protestant Religion 
and the liberties of Europe ; and in that view, to adhere 
to and encourage my allies .... The late signal suc- 
cess in Germany has given a happy turn to affairs, which 
it is incumbent on us to improve ; and in this critical 




His Serene Higlinefs FEKJJrN-A-NTB 

])uke of BrimfMMck andLunenbxirgT^- 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry, 125 

conjuncture the eyes of all Europe are upon you. In 
particular I must recommend it to you, that my good 
brother and ally the King of Prussia, may be supported 
in such a manner, as his magnanimity and zeal for the 
cause deserve. 

It was not Rossbach which led Pitt to renounce 
the convention of Kloster-Severn, and to recommend 
the appointment of Ferdinand of Brunswick to the 
command of the re-established army. These steps 
were taken before the battle was won, but the vic- 
tory made manifest the possibility and the advan- 
tages of fighting France on land as well as by sea. 
Frederick became a popular English hero, and the 
House of Commons agreed with only one dissentient 
voice to provide pay for the Hanoverian army, on 
the understanding that the force was to be under 
British control. A fresh treaty was arranged with 
Prussia and was signed April 11, 1758, by which 
England was to pay ^670,000 to Frederick, and 
both contracting parties promised to make peace 
only in concert and mutual agreement. There were 
altogether six treaties between England and Prussia 
from January 16, 1756, to December 12, 1760. The 
second promised a subsidy of a million, which was 
not paid, and a fleet in the Baltic. The fleet is not 
mentioned in the later treaties, but altogether a sum 
of ^2,680,000 was paid to Frederick in subsidies. 
The treaty of 1758 contains no stipulation that 
English troops should be sent to join the army of 
Ferdinand, but a declaration appended provides that 
five thousand English should be sent to garrison 
Embden. 



126 William Pitt. [1757- 



The declaration also contained an expression of re- 
gret that the King could not send a British fleet to 
the Baltic as Frederick desired. Pitt indeed, while 
anxious to assist the common cause by reviving the 
Hanoverian army and supplying Prussia with funds, 
hesitated long before agreeing to send English 
troops to Germany. His primary object was 
throughout the war in America and on the sea. 
His speech at the opening of the session, of which 
Horace Walpole gives an abstract, affords us an in- 
sight into his mind."^ The failure and delay at 
Rochefort and in America were dwelt on with bit- 
terness. " Nothing could be well till the army was 
subjected to the civil power ; they were to obey, not 
to reason." Lord Loudoun was '' loaded with all 
the asperity peculiar to his (Pitt's) style." He had 
not even attempted anything, and all the doors in 
America were open to France. A panegyric on 
Watson, Pococke, and Clive followed. " What as- 
tonishing success had Watson with only three ships ! 
. . . He did not stay to careen this and condemn 
that, but at once sailed into the body of the Ganges. 
He was supported by CHve, that man not born for a 
desk — that heaven-born General^ whose magnanimity, 
determination, and execution would charm a king of 
Prussia; and whose presence of mind astonished the 
Indies ! " A significant outburst on the subject of 
continental measures caused Pitt considerable diffi- 
culty in the following months. He declared that he 
meant the army for our immediate selves ; " he had 
never been against continental measures when prac- 

^Memoirs of George 11,^ iii., 88, 90. 



1761] Pittas War Ministry. 127 

ticable, but would not now send a drop of our blood 
to the Elbe, to be lost in that ocean of gore." Pitt 
maintained his refusal to send English troops for 
some time, but he soon took the first step by the 
dispatch of a small force to garrison Embden. The 
victories of Prince Ferdinand induced him to go 
much farther in that direction than in 1757 he be- 
lieved could be justified. 

The supplies voted for 1758 amounted to £\o^- 
486,457. Foreign subsidies and the pay of foreign 
troops absorbed ;^ 1,861,897, which included the 
£6jQ,OQO paid to Frederick ; the number of seamen 
was raised to sixty thousand, and of the land forces 
to 86,500; thirty thousand of these were for 
Gibraltar and the colonies, and including the force on 
the Irish establishment, the total of the army was 
about one hundred thousand men. Pitt's plans for 
the year were a repetition of the attack on Louis- 
burg, and descents on the French coast. But he 
was determined to avoid the chief causes of the 
earlier failure. By means of a powerful fleet under 
Hawke and Boscawen he had attempted to intercept 
the French squadron returning from Louisburg in 
the previous October, but the admirals had missed 
their enemy. It was therefore necessary to hurry on 
the preparations for the fleet entrusted to Boscawen, 
which was to aid in the attack. Sir Charles Hardy 
sailed early in January for Halifax, to take com- 
mand of the squadron which had wintered at that 
port under Colville, with orders to repair off Louis- 
burg as soon as the season would permit, to intercept 
any French supplies. Boscawen himself sailed on 



128 William Pitt. [1757- 

February 19th with a very powerful fleet of twenty- 
three of the line and eighteen frigates. Hawke, with 
seven of the line, was sent to block up the ports 
in the Bay of Biscay, and Osborne, with fifteen of 
the line, cruised between Cape de Galle and Cartha- 
gena on the coast of Spain. There were three 
French squadrons at Brest, Toulon, and Carthagena, 
all under orders to steal away, if practicable, for 
Louisburg. De la Clue had sailed from Toulon as 
early as December, 1757, but could not pass the 
Straits. This year the blockade was effective, as 
both Osborne and Hawke won valuable victories. 

Pitt by dispatching powerful fleets at an early 
date had secured an immense advantage. He had 
cut off from Louisburg the reinforcements, of which 
the very rumour had paralysed Holbourne and 
Loudoun in the previous year. 

In America, Pitt had appointed Major-General 
Abercrombie in Loudoun's place. He removed one 
of Loudoun's chief difflculties by an order that pro- 
vincial officers should take equal rank with offlcers 
of the regular army according to grade, and made 
the raising of men an easier matter by his financial 
arrangements. His Majesty, wrote Pitt,^ considered 
that the provinces of the north could themselves 
raise twenty thousand men " to join a body of the 
King's forces for invading Canada, by way of Crown 
Point, and carrying war into the heart of the enemy's 
possessions." The King, would provide artillery, 
arms, ammunition, tents, transport, and food. 

* Pitt to the Governor of Massachusetts, Dec. 30, 1757, Thack- 
eray's Life^ ii., 421. 



1761] Pittas War Ministry. 129 

" The whole therefore that his Majesty expects and 
requires from the several provinces is, the levying, cloth- 
ing and pay of the men ; and on these heads also, that 
no encouragement may be wanting to this great and sal- 
utary attempt, the King is further most graciously 
pleased to permit me to acquaint you, that strong rec- 
ommendations will be made to Parliament in their ses- 
sion next year, to grant a proper compensation for such 
expenses as above, according as the active vigour and 
strenuous efforts of the respective provinces shall justly 
appear to merit." 

On the same day Pitt wrote the ^Governor of 
New York advising boats to be built for the 
transport of twenty-five thousand men over Lake 
George to be ready by May ist. Abercrombie 
was to lead against Ticonderoga, with Brigadier 
Lord Howe as second in command ; to command 
the land forces against Louisburg Pitt chose Am- 
herst, a young colonel, who was made Major Gen- 
eral over the heads of many seniors, with Wolfe 
as one of his three Brigadiers; and a third com- 
mand, against Fort Duquesne, was given to Briga- 
dier John Forbes. 

Admiral Boscawen sailed from Halifax on May 
28th, more than two months earlier than Holbourne 
had sailed on the same errand the year before. His 
fleet numbered one hundred and fifty-seven sail, 
twenty-three ships of the line, eighteen frigates, with 
a total of nearly fifteen thousand seamen and ma- 
rines, and nineteen hundred and four guns. The 
great fleet of transports had nearly twelve thousand 
men on board, all British regulars except five hun- 



130 William Pitt, [1757- 

dred provincial rangers."^ Amherst joined the -fleet 
outside Halifax Harbour and took command of the 
army. This great force sailed into Gaberus Bay, 
about three miles west of Louisburg, on June 2d. 
Louisburg, the Dunkirk of America, was considered 
the strongest fortress on the continent.-)- So strong 
did the position appear that Boscawen was on the 
verge of calling a council of war, but desisted on the 
advice of a veteran officer, Captain Fergusson, who 

" advised the admiral, for his own honour, and the glory 
of his country, to exert that power, with which he was 
invested ; and not to leave it to the uncertain resolu- 
tions of a council of war, which had been so fatal at 
Minorca, at Rochefort, and even at Halifax, to the dis- 
grace of all concerned and the extreme loss of the 
nation." 

Boscawen was convinced. " Here," said he, " I will 
abide, and put them all ashore, and cover their re- 
treat, if they think proper to re-embark." :j: The 
French forces, under Dracour, consisted of three 
thousand and eighty regulars, including two compa- 
nies of artillery, and five ships of the line, and seven 
frigates, with three thousand men on board and five 
hundred and forty guns in the harbour. There were 
two hundred and nineteen cannon mounted on the 
walls, and a civilian population of five thousand to de- 
fend in the town. A landing was effected by Wolfe's 
brigade without very great difficulty, and Amherst 

* Beatson, Naval and Military Memoirs^ iii., note I2i. 
\ There is an excellent description of the place and siege in Park- 
man, Montcalm and Wolfe, ii., ch. xix. 

:j: Entick, History of the Late War, iii., 224, 225. 




rhe Hoii^ E D WARD B O S CAWEl^, Admiial 
of tlieBlue Squadron- 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry, 131 

laid siege to the fortress ; Wolfe silenced the Island 
battery which protected the entrance to the harbour 
and the French sank four large ships to prevent 
Boscawen from entering. Two of these were burned 
by seamen, who rowed into the harbour by night, 
and as this opened the way for Boscawen the French 
were compelled to capitulate July 28th. 

Abercrombie's attack on Ticonderoga did not meet 
with equal success. He himself had been appointed 
through political influence, and had neither the au- 
dacity nor persistence necessary for the command of 
such an expedition. Pitt intended the real com- 
mand to be in the hands of the young Lord Howe, 
whom he described as '' a complete model of mili- 
tary virtue," whose brave and gay spirit made him 
the idol of the entire army. Wolfe called him '' the 
noblest Englishman that has appeared in my time, 
and the best soldier in the British army." The 
force consisted of more than six thousand regulars, 
and nine thousand provincials, and on July 5th they 
embarked on Lake George in nine hundred bateaux 
and one hundred and thirty whale boats. The army 
landed with difficulty, but a great disaster befel them 
on the first day, when Lord Howe was killed in a 
skirmish. " In Lord Howe," wrote a contemporary, 
** the soul of General Abercrombie's army seems to 
expire." Montcalm at Ticonderoga had three thou- 
sand six hundred men ; he had carefully defended 
the position where he awaited attack, while Aber- 
crombie had not brought his artillery to the front. 
The EngHsh general was himself a mile and a half 
to the rear of the fighting, and sent repeated orders 



132 Wiliiani Pitt, [1757- 

for frontal attacks by the infantry, which only re- 
sulted in terrible loss. After losing nearly two 
thousand men he ordered a retreat. Pitt very pro- 
perly recalled him to England at the close of the 
campaign. But the year was not to end without 
victories for the English on the mainland. Brad- 
street, the officer who had carried supplies to Fort 
Oswego, persuaded Abercrombie to give him three 
thousand men, chiefly provincials, for an attack on 
Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario. By way of the 
Mohawk and Onondaga he reached the place where 
Fort Oswego had stood, crossed the lake, and sur- 
prised the French fort, which had been neglected. 
The Governor surrendered and all the French ships 
on the lake were captured. This was a severe blow 
as it cut the French line of communication and de- 
stroyed their sovereignty over Lake Ontario. It 
had an important influence on the fate of the last 
expedition of the year, that of Forbes against Fort 
Duquesne. 

Forbes's army consisted of twelve hundred High- 
landers and more than five thousand provincials from 
the Southern Colonies, with a detachment of Royal 
Americans, who were largely Germans of Pennsyl- 
vania under German officers.* The recruits were 
very different from those of the northern colonies, 
where fighting was a part of every man's experience, 
and the provincial officers were for the most part. 



* Pitt in the House of Commons (February, 1756) had opposed 
the enlistment of these German settlers and the granting of commis- 
sions to foreigners. The Agent of Massachusetts supported Pitt's 
opposition by a petition. 





LOUISBOURQ MEDALS OF 1758/ 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 133 

according to Forbes himself, "• an extremely bad 
collection of broken innkeepers, horse jockeys, and 
Indian traders." But Forbes was a soldier of un- 
conquerable determination who looked into all details 
himself, and was well fitted to make an army out of 
a mob. Among his chief ofBcers was Colonel Wash- 
ington, who wished the expedition to take the Vir- 
ginian Road to Duquesne which Braddock had 
used. Forbes, however, decided to make a new road 
through the forest from Pennsylvania. The fort had 
been the centre of the French intrigues with the 
Indians which had resulted in so many massacres 
and marauding expeditions against the English set- 
tled in the Western frontier ; but Forbes's task was 
made much easier by the neutrality which three of 
the Indian tribes were persuaded to declare in No- 
vember. His great difiliculty was in making the 
road over the mountains, and he was further im- 
peded by heavy rain. Bradstreet had delayed the 
supphes intended for Fort Duquesne at Frontenac, 
and when the French realised that Forbes would 
reach them they blew up the fortifications and evacu- 
ated the position. Forbes took peaceful possession 
on November 25th, and planted a new stockade, 
which he called Pittsburg, in honour of the illustri- 
ous minister. Two hundred men were left as a 
garrison, lack of provisions making a large garrison 
impossible, and the force returned home. Forbes 
himself had suffered from a painful disease, and he 
was carried on a litter all the way to Philadelphia, 
where he died in the following March. 

By way of one more assault on the French coast, 



134 William Pitt. [1757- 

an *' enterprise " (so called because the attempt 
against Rochefort had made the name " expedition " 
ridiculous) was planned against St. Malo. A camp 
of nearly fourteen thousand men was formed in the 
Isle of Wight, and the command was given to the 
Duke of Marlborough, who proved himself only 
the shadow of a great name. Two fleets were as- 
sembled at Spithead — the larger, of twenty-two of 
the line, under Lord Anson, and the smaller under 
Commodore Howe. Nothing resulted from the em- 
ployment of this great force beyond the burning of 
a few privateers. Marlborough quickly returned to 
England ; Pitt had heard of Ferdinand's success at 
Crefeldt, and now sent nine thousand men under 
Marlborough and Lord George Sackville to reinforce 
the Prince. Under General Bligh, the remainder of 
Marlborough's force again sailed for the French 
coast. The harbour of Cherbourg was destroyed, 
and some guns were captured which were afterwards 
paraded through London. A serious disaster befell 
Bligh near St. Malo. While re-embarking the 
troops were attacked by the French and suffered 
heavily. A loss of seven hundred in killed and 
prisoners cooled Pitt's ardour for these expeditions, 
which were never very damaging to the French. 
If he had been content with naval bombardments 
he would have secured equal results at less expense. 
Ferdinand's campaign was a successful one. Dur- 
ing the winter the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel and 
the Duke of Brunswick made preparations for de- 
serting the cause of Prussia and Hanover, but their 
treaties of neutrality with France were not ratified, 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 135 

and they remained allies of Frederick and George. 
Clermont was appointed to take Richelieu's com- 
mand. 

The army he commanded was in wretched con- 
dition, and when Ferdinand with the Hanoverian 
army advanced in February the French fell back 
and crossed the Rhine at Wesel. Ferdinand fol- 
lowed and forced Clermont to give battle at Crefeldt. 
The French were forty-seven thousand against thirty- 
three thousand, and occupied a strong position, but 
Clermont was beaten with a loss of four thousand, 
and compelled to continue his retreat. Belle Isle, 
now French War Minister, recalled Clermont and 
sent Contades, a capable general, to take command, 
while Soubise was recalled from assisting the cam- 
paign against Frederick and ordered to march upon 
Hesse through Hanau. In order to counteract this 
movement, Ferdinand recrossed the Rhine. At the 
beginning of his campaign he had sent a requisition 
to the British Government asking for a detachment 
of British cavalry. We have seen that Pitt only 
agreed to send five thousand men to garrison Emb- 
den. This fortress was occupied by the French 
until March 19th, when the garrison was ordered to 
join the main French army in its retreat towards the 
Rhine, and Commodore Holmes took possession 
of it. The way was now open for the dispatch of 
British troops, and the success of Ferdinand was such 
that Pitt would have shown an unusual apathy if he 
had not taken full advantage of it. He resolved 
to support the Prince in every possible way, and 
henceforth he takes up the German war as zealously 



136 William Pitt. [1757- 

as Carteret himself might have done. As has been 
mentioned, on their return from the St. Malo enter- 
prise Marlborough and Lord George Sackville were 
sent with nine thousand men, including a regiment 
of Highlanders, to join Ferdinand at Munster. This 
was about six months after Pitt's declaration that 
he meant the army for our immediate selves, and 
would not send a drop of English blood " to the 
Elbe." 

Pitt, on the advice of a Quaker named Gumming, 
sent a small squadron, under Gaptain Marsh, of one 
ship of the line, one of fifty guns, a frigate and a 
sloop, with two hundred marines and a detachment 
of artillery, to attack the French settlements of 
Goree and Senegal on the west coast of Africa. 
The French made no resistance, and Senegal, an 
important centre of the slave trade, at once sub- 
mitted. Marsh then sailed to the south and at- 
tacked the island of Goree, but his force was 
insufficient and he returned to England. Later in 
the year (December 29th) Goree was captured by a 
much stronger force which had been sent out under 
Keppel. 

Frederick's campaign during 1758 displayed his 
great qualities, but produced no conclusive successes. 
His attempt to take Olmutz failed, owing to Daun's 
skilful movements, and he turned towards the east, 
where the Russians had advanced nearly to Frank- 
fort on the Oder. The battle of Zornsdorf was the 
first in which he commanded against the Russians. 
His opponent was Fermor, who commanded sixty- 
nine thousand men, while Frederick had only 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 137 

thirty-two thousand, and the battle practically lasted 
three days, beginning the 25th of August. The 
slaughter was immense, the Russians admitting that 
they had lost ten thousand eight hundred and eighty- 
six killed and twelve thousand seven hundred and 
eighty-eight wounded, while Frederick lost twelve 
thousand men.* But the victory was really with 
Frederick as Fermor was compelled to retreat. The 
Prussian king's absence in Pomerania led the Aus- 
trians to make a simultaneous attack on Saxony and 
Silesia, and Frederick made a rapid march to the 
Saxon frontier. Marshal Daun, however, succeeded 
in surprising his camp at Hochkirchen and inflicted 
a severe defeat (October 14th). Frederick rapidly 
recovered, escaped Daun's army, and marched on 
Neiss, a frontier town in Silesia besieged by another 
Austrian army. He raised the siege, drove the Aus- 
trians out of Silesia and marched back to Saxony 
where Daun was now besieging Dresden, and once 
more compelled the Austrians to evacuate Saxony. 
Nothing in his great career is more admirable than 
the manner in which he stayed the advance of Rus- 
sians and Austrians during 1758. 

Parhament met on November 23, 1758, and Pitt's 
speech reflects his confidence and determination. 

** Pitt opened the business of the session with art, seem- 
ing to avoid all ostentation of power, while he assumed 
everything to himself but the disposition of the money. 
That load he left to the Treasury, and vast, he said, it 
would be, heaps of millions must be raised, — thus af- 
fecting to heighten rather than disguise the expence and 

*Rainbaud, Russes et Prusses^ p. i86. 



138 William Pitt. [1757- 

difficulties of our situation ; we could not make the 
same war as the French, or as our ancestors did, for the 
same money. He painted the distress of France, and 
coloured high what had been done by ourselves." * 

The estimates voted for the succeeding year 
amounted to ;^i2,76i,3io, of which ;^3, 120,000 went 
to the navy, sixty thousand men, ;^ 1,256, 130 to the 
army, eighty-five thousand men, including two new 
regiments, and ^1,238,177 to the pay of the foreign 
troops. This was an addition of about two and a 
quarter millions on the previous year's estimates. 
In France, a larger amount was raised, though much 
of it went into the hands of the farmers of taxes, 
and more was wasted by corrupt administration. At 
this period, however, the favour of Madame de 
Pompadour fell on a worthier object, and some order 
was restored in the French Government by the ap- 
pointment of the Due de Choiseul as Secretary of 
State in November, 1758. ''Choiseul would have 
been at any time a remarkable man : by the side of 
the pigmies of Louis XV.'s Court, he was a kind of 
great man." f As a Lorrainer he was hereditarily 
devoted to Maria Theresa's husband, and he signed 
on December 30, 1758, the third treaty with Austria. 
The French subsidy was increased, and France was 
to maintain an army of one hundred thousand in 
Germany, while she was also to pay the Saxon army 
and the Swedish subsidy. In return France was to 
receive nothing ; even her conquests on the Rhine 
were to be administered in the name of the Empress 

* Walpole's, Memoirs of George II,, iii., 150. 
f Martin, Histoire de France ^ xv., 558. 



1761] PtWs War Ministry. 139 

Queen ! This also was the period of M. de Sil- 
houette, who, for a time, by a kind of juggling in 
finance, persuaded the French people that he would 
raise enormous sums. There was a momentary re- 
vival of ardour through the promise of abundant 
money and the conjunction of Choiseul with Belle 
Isle, and determined efforts were to be made to re- 
dress in 1759 the disasters of previous years. Pitt 
was equally determined, and the year proved for him 
the most glorious in his career, though for Frederick 
it was one of disaster. 

The time had arrived for carrying the war in 
America into the heart of the French possessions, 
and a very comprehensive plan of campaign was 
arranged. Attacks were to be made on four points. 
Amherst, now commander-in-chief in the place of 
Abercrombie, was to proceed once more against 
Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and after their reduc- 
tion to sail up Lake Champlain and join Wolfe be- 
fore Quebec or assist him by an attack on Montreal 
which would divide the French. To Wolfe was 
given the most difficult and important command. 
In conjunction with a fleet under Admiral Saunders, 
he was to enter the St. Lawrence and besiege 
Quebec. Prideaux was to attack Fort Niagara, 
cross Lake Ontario, descend the St. Lawrence and 
approach Montreal. Stanwix was to strengthen 
Pittsburg and attack the French forts between that 
fort and Lake Erie. These operations assisted one 
another, but it would have been a miraculous cam- 
paign if all the difficulties of transport across wild 
country had been so completely surmounted as to 



140 William Pitt, 



[1757- 



allow all four expeditions to perform the entire task 
allotted. Perfect success was not achieved by them 
all, but none failed to secure important advantages. 
" Every colony north of Maryland," says Bancroft, 
*' seconded the zeal of William Pitt." Massachusetts 
sent seven thousand men, Connecticut two thousand. 
New Jersey one thousand. The total force em- 
ployed on the English side numbered about thirty 
thousand. 

In Canada the dangers of the situation were clear- 
ly realised. The resources of the colony had long 
been wasted by the corruption of the leading offi- 
cials, of the Intendant Bigot especially. Canada as 
well as France had its Pompadours, there was pover- 
ty and scarcity of food among the poorer classes, 
and little hope of receiving either supplies or men 
from France ; that which had been the weakness of 
the English in the early years of the war, divided 
command, was now reflected by the quarrels of Van- 
dreuil with Montcalm ; Bougainville, who afterwards 
became famous as a navigator, crossed to France in 
order to beseech the French Minister for reinforce- 
ments. *' Canada," he said, " had been saved thus 
far by the dissensions of the English colonies ; but 
now, for the first time, they are united against her, 
and prepared to put forth their strength." And he 
begged for troops, arms, munitions, food, and a 
squadron to defend the mouth of the St. Lawrence.* 

The reply of the French Minister, addressed to 
Montcalm, would have afforded an effective justifi- 

"^ Manoij-e au Mini stre par M. de Bougainville, December, 1758, 
quoted by Parkman, ii., 175. 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 141 

cation to Pitt, when he defended his famous thesis 
that America was conquered in Germany. " It was 
necessary to concentrate all the strength of the king- 
dom for a decisive operation in Europe ; therefore, 
the aid required could not be sent, and the King 
trusted everything to his zeal and generalship, joined 
with the valour of the victors of Ticonderoga." * 
Choiseul in fact hoped to save America by invading 
England. Montcalm did his best with the means at 
his disposal ; his total force was nearly twenty thou- 
sand and the natural defences of the centre of Can- 
ada were very strong. Quebec at the east, the rapids 
of the St. Lawrence west of Montreal, and the Isle- 
aux-Noix at the northern outlet of Lake Champlain 
barred all the approaches. Belle Isle wrote to him : 
" If we sent a large reinforcement of troops there 
would be great fear that the English would intercept 
them on the way . . . . it is necessary that 
you limit your plans of defence to the most essential 
points and those most closely connected, so that, 
being concentrated within a smaller space, each part 
may be within reach of support and succour from 
the rest. How small soever may be the space you 
are able to hold, it is indispensable to keep a footing 
in North America, for if we once lose the country 
entirely, its recovery will be almost impossible." f 

These instructions were followed and little at- 
tempt was made to defend the outposts. Amherst 
with an army of eleven thousand, which he had i 
thoroughly drilled, embarked on Lake George- 

* Z^ Ministre a Montcalm, February, 1759, Parkman, ii,, 175. ' 
f Belle Isle a Montcalm, February 19, 1759, Ibid., 177. 



142 William Pitt, [1757- 

towards the end of July. Bourlamaque commanded 
the French, and had about four thousand men, but 
in obedience to instructions he fell back on the Isle- 
aux-Noix, without risking a battle. Ticonderoga 
was burnt by the French themselves, and on August 
1st, Amherst took possession of Crown Point, but 
after this success, his one fault as a general, exag- 
gerated caution, induced him to remain building 
forts and armed ships for Lake Champlain, until 
October. Thus Wolfe, before Quebec, was left with- 
out assistance. Meanwhile Prideaux's army had 
succeeded in capturing Fort Niagara on July 25th, 
though Prideaux himself had been killed. This suc- 
cess on Lake Ontario completed the severance of 
Canada from the French forts in the west, and its 
effect was so complete that Stanwix carried out his 
expedition from Pittsburg to Lake Erie without op- 
position. On the death of Prideaux, Amherst sent 
Gage to take his place, with orders to descend the 
St. Lawrence and attack the French posts on that 
river west of Montreal, but Gage found this to be 
impossible. It was mid October before Amherst 
himself had finished his boats and forts, and was 
ready for an advance ; his small navy consisted of a 
brig, a floating battery and a sloop, and against this 
force the four French ships on Lake Champlain made 
no resistance. But the weather broke, heavy storms 
made advance impossible, so that Amherst made no 
attack on the Isle-aux-Noix, but retired instead to 
Crown Point in order to finish his fort there. 

Thus in his great enterprise against Quebec, Wolfe 
was left without the assistance he expected. His 



1761] Pitfs War Ministry. 143 

army consisted of eight thousand six hundred effect- 
ives, while Montcalm commanded more than fifteen 
thousand. The fleet was under Admiral Saunders, 
and numbered twenty-two ships of the line. By 
June 26th the main British fleet reached the Isle of 
Orleans, three or four miles from Quebec, where the 
army was landed. Montcalm had carefully guarded 
every point which was open to attack, he had de- 
clared that he would play Fabius and not Hannibal, 
and with a position so strong, and an army so supe- 
rior in numbers, it was clear that Quebec would not 
easily fall. The chief incidents of the siege, which 
lasted eleven weeks, are well known. Wolfe secured 
Point Levi, without great difficulty and from thence 
bombarded the town ; the* French failed in an at- 
tempt to burn the English fleet by fire-boats which 
were sent down the river by night: the English 
failed in an attack on the French left at the falls of 
Montmorenci. The days passed and by the begin- 
ning of September Wolfe, havingaltogether failed to 
draw Montcalm from his defences, and being himself 
depressed and distracted by severe illness, and con- 
vinced that Amherst would not come in time to ren- 
der effective aid, wrote to Pitt the famous letter in 
which he despaired of success. He had lost more 
than eight hundred men in killed and woundedo But 
he was not the man to leave Quebec without ex- 
hausting every possible means, and he resolved on 
an attempt to land from the river just above Cape 
Diamond, and to climb the apparently inaccessible 
cliff to the high ground, which was somewhat 
weakly defended. Then followed the famous night 



144 William Pitt. [1757- 

attack and battle on the Heights of Abraham, when 
Montcahn was at last defeated. Wolfe, charging at 
the head of his favourite Grenadiers, was thrice 
wounded but lived to hear that the day was won. 
Montcalm also, the gallant soldier who had struggled 
so long to prop the declining fortunes of France, re- 
ceived his death wound during this brief but mo- 
mentous battle. In the Quebec of to-day, which 
remains the most poetic of New World cities, a 
stately obelisk commemorates the common death 
and virtue of the two heroic leaders. 

In a few days, Quebec surrendered. This was the 
most striking and glorious achievement of the Brit- 
ish arms, and the news reached London almost im- 
mediately after Wolfe's despairing letter to Pitt had 
been made known. No man could then foresee how 
influential a deed had been wrought by this decisive 
stroke in the British conquest of Canada, but the 
mingled joy and tragedy of the news that Quebec 
was taken and Wolfe dead appealed directly to the 
least sensitive imagination. " Men despaired, they 
triumphed and they wept ; for Wolfe had fallen in 
the hour of victory. Joy, curiosity, astonishment, 
was printed on every countenance." The Minister 
and soldier were thought of together and the nation 
recognised the affinity in spirit between the daring 
and determined officer and the statesman who, 
without consideration of parliamentary or family in- 
fluence, had given him so high a command. Pitt pro- 
nounced on Wolfe an elaborate eulogy, which has not 
achieved immortality, but Cowper united their names 
in lines that are still remembered when he rejoiced 




MONTCALM AND WOLFE MONUMENT AT QUEBEC. 



1761] Pittas War Mzmstry. 145 

" That Chatham's language was his mother tongue, 
And Wolfe's great name compatriot with his own." 

The ruin of the French naval power involved them 
in further loss in the West Indies. Their two islands 
Martinique and Guadaloupe were the centre of a 
lucrative trade, and the former was the base of a 
destructive fleet of privateers. In October, 1758, 
Pitt sent out a fleet of eight ships of the line, with 
six regiments and a detachment of artillery, which 
rendezvoused at Jamaica in January and was joined 
by the squadron stationed there. The troops were 
landed on the island of Gaudaloupe, when news came 
that a French fleet of about equal strength with the 
English had been sighted north of Barbadoes, and 
Commodore Moore, leaving the troops, sailed for 
Dominica. The position of the army was then very 
difficult, but they succeeded in forcing a capitula- 
tion of the island on May ist, twenty-four hours 
before news reached the French that reinforcements 
had been landed from Martinique, under protection 
of the French squadron. 

Choiseul hoped to revive the ardour and fortune 
of France by courageous attacks on her enemy, 
much as Pitt had trusted to re-creating the warlike 
spirit of England by taking the offensive against 
France. It was proposed to make descents on Eng- 
land, Scotland, and Ireland, and during the early 
months of 1759 fleets of flat bottomed boats were 
once more constructed at Dunkirk, Havre, Brest, 
and Rochefort, while the squadrons at Toulon and 
Brest were to unite in order to form a powerful con- 
voy. Choiseul attempted to strengthen his naval 



146 Williafn Pitt, ti757- 

position by offering Minorca to Spain in exchange 
for an alliance, and by trying to persuade the Dutch 
to join the war against England, whose arrogant use 
of her sea-power had greatly injured the Dutch 
trade. He endeavoured also to secure the co-opera- 
tion of Russia and Sweden in the attack on Scot- 
land, but these powers, although members of the 
Confederation against Frederick, declined to join in 
direct conflict with Frederick's ally. They made, 
however, a treaty (March 9, 1759) to which Den- 
mark acceded in the following year, by which they 
agreed to unite their fleets in order to prevent the 
entrance of warships into the Baltic. Choiseul's at- 
tempts are an anticipation of Napoleon's later de- 
signs against England, while the Russo-Swedish 
agreement was a forerunner of the famous armed 
neutrality of Catherine. The completeness of Eng- 
land's supremacy at sea under Pitt's energetic 
Ministry was beginning to create that feeling of uni- 
versal jealousy in Europe which proved of so great 
use to Napoleon in his attempts at continental fed- 
eration against the island power. There is a very 
interesting memoir by Choiseul, which shows that 
he at least realised how great was the advance made 
by the power of Great Britain. He is attempting 
to persuade the Court of Stockholm to join the 
proposed descent on the Scottish coast. 

" I will end," he writes, " by saying that we in France 
have no other means of ending successfully a war that is 
becoming very dangerous to the equilibrium of Europe. 
We must not deceive ourselves. The true equilibrium 
depends in reality on commerce and on America. The 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 147 

German war, even if it be conducted more effectively 
than at present, will not prevent the evils that are threat- 
ened by the great superiority of the English on the sea. 
The King will impoverish himself in vain. He will, if 
we are not cautious, see his allies forced to become not 
the subsidiaries but the tributaries of Enlgand : and France 
will need several Richelieus and Colberts in succession 
if she is to regain, in relation to the enemy, the equality 
we are in danger of losing." * 

Choiseul's whole plan was based on the hope that 
the English navy was so scattered that it might be 
possible for at least one of the expeditions to elude 
the vigilance of English admirals. His scheme 
would have been an ambitious one even if France 
had obtained command of the sea ; under the con- 
ditions existing it was little better than ridiculous. 
A royal message informed the House of Commons 
on May 30th of the French design, and measures 
were taken to embody the entire militia, while 
special terms were offered to recruits for home de- 
fence. Pitt, it will be remembered, had on a previ- 
ous occasion drawn an alarming picture of a French 
invasion, by way of stimulating the popular 
imagination. In this year England had no need for 
mercenaries to defend her shores, no panic disturbed 
the people, and Pitt wrote in an official dispatch to 
the English Ambassador at Madrid : 

"Whatever danger there may be of an invasion being 
attempted, such is the situation of these Kingdoms by 
the wise precautions of his Majesty, that the apprehension 

* Choiseul to d'Hauricourt, March 21, 1759. Flassan's Diplomaiie 
Fran^aise, vi. p, 160. 



148 William Pitt. [1757- 

of the consequences of such an attempt neither disturbs 
nor fluctuates the councils of the King, nor tends in the 
least to break the measures, or check the vigour of any 
part of the plan of the war ; his Majesty's regular forces 
in Great Britain and Ireland amounting to above 40,000 
men, 35 ships of the line, besides frigates, equipped and 
manned for home service." * 

Notwithstanding the magnitude of his various 
schemes, Pitt did not recall a single man from for- 
eign service. It was a satisfactory contrast to the 
condition of things in 1756, and events showed that 
the Minister's confidence was well founded. The 
naval preparations were complete. A squadron un- 
der Commodore Boyce was stationed off Dunkirk, 
while a larger fleet under Admiral Hawke blockaded 
Brest, and other smaller squadrons watched the port 
of Vannes. As the larger French force was to em- 
bark from Havre, Admiral Rodney was sent to 
bombard that fort. This he accomplished with ade- 
quate effect in July. The French had been for 
some time equipping a powerful fleet in Toulon, and 
their one hope of success, either in the attack on 
England or the reinforcement of Canada, lay in the 
junction of this fleet with that at Brest. The French 
admiral at Toulon, De la Clue, had twelve ships of 
the line, while Admiral Boscawen, who commanded 
in the Mediterranean, had a fleet of fourteen of the 
line. An attack on two French ships lying close to 
the harbour of Toulon led to three English ships 
being seriously damaged by the land batteries, and 
this compelled Boscawen to put in to Gibraltar to 

* June 5, 1759. T\ia.ckQxsiy's Life of Chatham,!., 395. 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 149 

refit. He detached two frigates to watch the enemy, 
and on August 17th the Gibraltar frigate signalled 
that the French fleet was in sight. Boscawen at 
once put to sea, and at daylight sighted seven ships 
of the line. De la Clue's squadron had been sepa- 
rated in the night. Boscawen gave chase and quickly 
captured the Centaur. He pursued the French 
fleet all night, and on the following morning the two 
fleets were off the coast of Portugal, and De la Clue 
put himself under the protection of a Portuguese 
fort. The niceties of neutrality law did not appeal 
to Boscawen, and he continued his attack, capturing 
the Ocean (80 guns, esteemed the best French ship 
afloat), the Tenieraire (74), and the Modeste (64) ; the 
Redoubtable (74) was burnt. The remains of the 
Toulon fleet put in to Cadiz where they were block- 
aded. This victory of Cape Lagos, in which the 
English loss was only fifty-six men, was a great blow 
to Choiseul's ambitions. 

It was immediately preceded by an English vic- 
tory on land. Prince Ferdinand was opposed by a 
French army of considerably greater strength than 
his own. At the end of 1758 the chief French army, 
thirty-five thousand strong under the Due de Broglie, 
was at Bergen near Frankfort, while the Marshal de 
Contades commanded another on the river Lippe. 
Ferdinand desired to take advantage of this separa- 
tion, and leaving the British and Hanoverians to 
watch Contades, he attacked De Broglie on April 
13th. The attack was beaten off with heavy loss; 
the two French armies combined and reduced Mun- 
ster and Minden. At the last place, Contades, who 



150 William Pitt. [1757- 

commanded the united army, took up a strong posi- 
tion, his right leaning on the river Weser and the 
town of Minden, his left protected by boggy ground, 
his front protected by a stream. Ferdinand was 
inferior in numbers, but by his skilful disposition he 
deceived Contades, drew him from his position, and 
inflicted a signal defeat. The English infantry and 
artillery won great glory, but the cavalry remained 
inactive owing to the strange conduct of their com- 
mander, Lord George Sackville, who declined to 
charge notwithstanding repeated orders. 

Lord George Sackville was commanded home, 
tried by court-martial, and dismissed from all mili- 
tary appointments. There had been great jealousy 
between Prince Ferdinand and the English com- 
mander, and the apology made for Lord George 
Sackville was that the superior officer had purposely 
made the orders given to his subordinate difficult 
and incomprehensible. When the unhappy officer 
returned to England in disgrace, Pitt, who had been 
his friend, 

" went to visit Lord George in form . . . He would 
not, he said, condemn any man unheard. But he was 
true to the German cause. . . . When Fitzroy re- 
turned to the army, Mr. Pitt charged him with the 
strongest assurances to Prince Ferdinand. * Tell him,' 
said Mr. Pitt, ' he shall have what reinforcements, what 
ammunition he pleases — tell him I will stand and fall 
with him.' " * 

Prince Ferdinand deserved the highest praise, for, 

* Walpole's Memoirs of George II., iii., 214. 



1761.1 Pitt's War Ministry, 151 

against heavy odds, he had won a victory which 
completely changed the situation. Hanover had 
seemed to be at the mercy of the French, but the 
battle of Minden turned their steady advance into a 
retreat, Contades retiring towards the Rhine, and De 
Broglie upon Frankfort. The campaign, which had 
promised to be the most successful for France, since 
that which ended in the convention of Kloster-Severn, 
was robbed of all appreciable gain. Pitt was de- 
lighted by the victory of " our immortal Ferdinand." 
At the close of the year he wrote to the Prince that, 
as a good Englishman, he was as warmly affected by 
Minden as by Quiberon Bay. 

While both on land and sea the British and Han- 
overian cause prospered, Frederick was sorely beset. 
This was his fourth campaign, and proved disas- 
trous through the success achieved by the immense 
Russian armies. Prince Soltykoff was appointed 
generalissimo of the Russians in succession to Fer- 
mor, and his campaign was a strikingly successful 
one. He advanced towards Silesia, and at the bat- 
tle of Zullichau (July 23rd) the Russians defeated a 
much smaller Prussian army under Wadell, and occu- 
pied Frankfort-on-Oder, where they were joined by 
Loudoun with eighteen thousand Austrians. Fred- 
erick himself marched to give the Russians battle, 
but with a much inferior force he suffered the most 
terrible of all his defeats. For three days he de- 
spaired, but his enemies failed to take advantage 
of his sore straits, when, as he himself said, they 
had only to give him one finishing blow. But com- 
plete recovery was impossible, and the rest of the 



152 William Pitt. [1757- 

year was full of disaster, Daun in Saxony taking 
Dresden and compelling the surrender of Prussian 
troops at Maxen and Meissen. 

The elaborate scheme of invading England was 
not abandoned even after the battle of Lagos. It 
was believed that bad weather in the later months 
of the year would drive the blockading fleets from 
off Dunkirk and Brest. A violent gale on October 
1 2th enabled Thurot to escape from Dunkirk ; he 
took refuge in the harbour of Gothenburg, but his 
voyage round Scotland was tempestuous, and his 
little expedition only reached Carrickfergus in the 
north of Ireland on February, 1760, where he landed 
six hundred men and took a few prisoners. On 
sailing from the port his ships were sighted by three 
English frigates and after a gallant fight, surrendered. 
The same storm in October, 1759, which had made 
Thurot's escape possible, compelled Hawke to return 
to Torbay for shelter. With a heavy gale blowing 
from the west it was impossible for the French to 
sail, but immediately the gale lessened the French 
admiral Conflans put to sea. His fleet consisted of 
twenty-one ships of the line, the English of twenty- 
three. Hawke sailed from Torbay the day Conflans 
left Brest, and directed his course to Quiberon Bay 
where he expected the French fleet to rendezvous ; 
a strong easterly gale drove him far to the west, but 
the wind veered round and on November 20th his 
advanced frigates discovered the French fleet bear- 
ing north between Belle Isle and the main land. A 
fierce sea, a treacherous coast, the reefs and shallows 
of the bay, made pursuit of the French dangerous, 




Sir Ei>Tr.^ Ha^>^T5^b 

Admiral of the White . 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 153 

and they endeavoured to escape by keeping inshore. 
So dangerous was the coast even in fine weather 
that pursuit in the midst of storm seemed impos- 
sible, and it is said that so Httle did the French be- 
lieve that Hawke would dare to follow them that 
they mistook the van of the English fleet for pilot 
ships, and could not crowd sail for flight until it was 
too late. The pilot informed Hawke that he could 
not obey his order to lay him alongside of the French 
admiral without danger of running on a shoal. 
"You have done your duty in pointing out the 
danger," replied the Admiral, " now obey my com- 
mand and lay me alongside of the Soleil RoyatJ' 
Several of the French ships fought with great gal- 
lantry, but the result of the fight was never in 
doubt. This battle was the Trafalgar of the war ; 
the French navy was for practical purposes de- 
stroyed, and Choiseul's ambitious projects were 
finally abandoned. The total English loss was only 
forty killed and two hundred and two wounded ; 
at so little cost but by unsurpassed daring did Hawke 
achieve the immense results of Quiberon Bay. 

Parliament had met on November 13th, a week 
before Hawke's victory. Pitt was now at the sum- 
mit of his fame and the absolute ruler of the House 
as well as of the Ministry. His name was identified 
with victory all over the world, and his strong will 
was sovereign over the military forces and political 
government of the country. The closing year had 
been one of unexampled glory. There had been 
two great naval victories, Madras had been saved 
from the French, they had been defeated at Minden, 



154 William Pitt. [1757- 

while Goree, Guadaloupe and above all Quebec 
had been taken from them. And this was the year 
which Choiseul had hoped to signalise by the in- 
vasion of England. In the debate on the address, 
Beckford, always an enthusiastic follower of Pitt, 
spoke a glowing eulogy on the Minister, but Pitt 
was always modest when praised, though the proud- 
est of men when slighted or attacked. 

" He disclaimed particular praise, and professed his 
determination of keeping united with the rest of the 
ministers. Fidelity and diligence were all he could 
boast, although his bad health perhaps had caused him 
to relax somewhat of his application. Not a week, he 
said, had passed in the summer but had been a crisis in 
which he had not known whether he should be torn in 
pieces, or commended, as he was now by Mr. Beckford. 
That the more a man was versed in business, the more 
he found the hand of Providence everywhere. That 
success had given us unanimity, not unanimity success. 
That for himself, however, he would not have dared, as 
he had done, but in these times. Other ministers had 
helped as well, but had not been circumstanced (not so 
popular) to dare as much. He thought the stone almost 
rolled to the top of the hill, but it might roll back with 
dreadful repercussion. A weak moment in the field, or 
in council, might overturn all ; for there was no such 
thing as chance ; // was the unaccountable name of No- 
thing. All was Providence, whose favour was to be 
merited by virtue. Our Allies must be supported ; if 
one wheel stopped, all might. He had unlearned his 
juvenile errors, and thought no longer that England 
would do all by itself ; who had never been subject to a 
panic^ was not likely to be terrified 7tow. 



1761] Pitfs War Ministry. 155 

He stated Prince Ferdinand's army as containing but 
sixty thousand men ; France, next year would have one 
hundred thousand — was Prince Ferdinand, therefore, 
as strong as we wished him ? He did wish ten thousand 
more could be found for him ; believed France meant 
to invade us ; though he should not look on the attempt 
as dangerous if she did. He balanced his attention be- 
tween the landed and the monied interest ; he did not 
prefer the monied men and the eighty millions in the 
Funds to the landed interest, though he thought our 
complaisance for the former ought to increase as public 
credit became more delicate. He ended with a mention 
of peace. Anybody, he said, could advise him in war ; 
who could draw such a peace as would please everybody ? 
He would snatch at the first moment of peace ; though 
he wished he could leave off at the war. "* 

The acts which followed this speech showed that 
Pitt's heart was more in the war than in the prospects 
of peace. The supplies which Parliament granted 
for the ensuing year rose to the great sum of £\^r 
503,563, an increase of close on three millions on 
those granted for the year of victory just ended. 
The British army now exceeded one hundred 
thousand, with twenty thousand militia. Greater 
energy, more men and more money were to be de- 
voted to the Continental war, for indeed France 
offered scarce any other colonies for attack. In the 
negotiations for peace also we see clearly enough 
that Pitt was determined to treat his Continental 
engagements as essential parts of the English policy 
and conditions of peace. Pitt kept these negotia- 

* Walpole's, Memoirs of George II., iii,, 215, 216, 



156 William Pitt. [1757- 

tions as entirely in his own hands as he did the con- 
duct of war, and Newcastle, who had innocently 
enough received information as to these proposals, 
was compelled to write a timid disclaimer to Pitt, 
which reads oddly as the letter of the nominal Pre- 
mier, and shows how completely Pitt controlled the 
only man in the Ministry who could be his rival. 
" I would not enter into any correspondence of busi- 
ness," wrote the head of the Treasury, " and relating 
to peace, with Mr. Yorke, or any of the King's Min- 
isters whatever, upon any account in the world. I am 
as innocent and as ignorant of everything relating to 
this affair, if it be of consequence, as any man alive.* 
Frederick was anxious for peace, his army being now 
reduced to one hundred thousand, most of whom 
were raw recruits and his country impoverished by 
the long war, and Pitt agreed to a joint declaration, 
which was delivered by Prince Louis de Brunswick 
to the Ambassadors of the belligerent powers at The 
Hague in November, 1759. Their Britannic and 
Prussian Majesties agreed '' to treat, in conjunction, 
concerning a firm and general peace," but the attempt 
at a congress failed. France indeed wished for peace, 
but Choiseul had resolved to keep the questions of 
peace with England and Prussia separate, while Pitt 
was determined to keep faith with Frederick and to 
conclude no separate treaty. Moreover the demands 
made by Pitt were so alarming that it seemed that 
France had nothing further to lose by the war, 
whereas Continental victories might make her posi- 
tion stronger. 

* Chatham Correspondence i., 445, 446. 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 157 

The death of Ferdinand VI. of Spain (August 10, 
1759) improved the international situation of France, 
and Choiseul's plan was to attempt peace with Prus- 
sia through Russian mediation, and peace with 
England through the mediation of Spain. The 
victories of Russia had so enlarged her plans of ex- 
tension that, so far from being likely to serve the 
purpose of France in this manner, the Czarina now 
demanded the original kingdom of Prussia for her- 
self, a plan of aggrandizement too great to suit the 
views of France, and in itself unlikely to recommend 
Russian mediation to the favour of Frederick. But 
the new king of Spain was a firm supporter of 
French interests, and quickly revived the system of 
the Bourbon compact. While still King of Naples, 
he had made an indistinct offer of good offices, and 
he immediately fell in with Choiseul's request that 
he would negotiate with England. Pitt, however, 
declined to accede to the request that he should 
formulate conditions of peace, though in a dispatch 
of November 20th to the Ambassador at Madrid, he 
expressed a desire for Spanish good ofifices. A later 
dispatch, dated December 14th, discloses a less 
friendly attitude towards Spain, as the following 
extract shows : 

" Above all, I am to let your Excellency understand 
that that part of the (Spanish) memorial which declares 
his Catholic Majesty cannot see with indifference our 
successes in America, seems very little consistent with 
the professions in the other part of that piece, where 
Spain desires to be considered as in a pure neutrality, 
and as a disinterested equal friend, and, in that quality, 



158 William Pitt. [1757- 

to become an object of confidence to both belligerent 
powers." 

The danger of the change in Spanish rule was thus 
immediately apprehended by Pitt, and the negotia- 
tions through Spain proved as fruitless as those 
which were jointly attempted by Prussia and Great 
Britain. Negotiations were in fact illusory when 
Maria Theresa and Elizabeth on the one side, and 
Pitt on the other, maintained, in each of the hostile 
alliances, a determinedly warlike spirit. Frederick 
desired peace because he believed he could set off 
the enormous English gains against his own misfor- 
tunes, but reduced though he was, he was in no mind 
to further peace by any concessions of his own. 
Pitt would not desert Frederick, and would only 
offer such terms as might have been accepted if 
Frederick had been as victorious as his ally, so for 
two more years the war was to continue. 

Seeing peace was impossible, Choiseul prepared 
for greater exertions, and France responded to the 
call in a manner worthy of high admiration. Sil- 
houette was exposed and her finances were appar- 
ently ruined, but the people accepted the repudiation 
of state-debts ; her naval power was destroyed, yet 
she still attempted to send reinforcements to America; 
her army, which had suffered so greatly through bad 
leadership and bad organisation, was once more sent 
forth to crush Ferdinand and conquer Hanover. 
Only Prussia itself, with a genius for King, dis- 
played equal persistency under equal discouragement. 
During this, the fifth campaign of the war, Frederick 



1761] Pittas War Ministry. 159 

by victories at Leignitz and Torgau, did much to re- 
trieve his position against Austria and Russia. 

Pitt sent nearly ten thousand horse and foot from 
England to Prince Ferdinand, whose army now in- 
cluded twenty-two thousand British troops. His 
campaign consisted mostly of skirmishes, his aim 
being to annoy the French in their advance on 
Hanover, rather than to meet them in pitched bat- 
tle. There were fights at Korbach and Emsdorf, 
where the Prince of Brunswick and the British troops 
under him gained much renown, and a more im- 
portant battle at Warburg (July 31st), where the 
French lost one thousand five hundred and the 
English cavalry under Lord Granby made a famous 
charge. But the result of the campaign was on the 
whole favourable to the French, as at its close they 
occupied both Gottingen and Hesse, and thus 
threatened Hanover. 

The year 1760 witnessed the completion of the 
conquest of Canada, and of the French in the Car- 
natic. Murray had remained in command of the 
garrison at Quebec, which was besieged by De Levi, 
who had succeeded to Montcalm's command. A 
foolish sortie by the English resulted in defeat and 
considerably weakened their defensive force, but on 
May 17th the English fleet entered the St. Lawrence 
and the French at once raised the siege. They had 
now only the heart of their colony, Montreal, to de- 
fend, and if that fell, not even the square foot of 
ground in North America, which Montcalm was so 
earnestly charged to retain, would remain to them. 
From three directions English armies were approach- 



i6o William Pitt. 



[1757- 



ing ; Amherst himself from Oswego, Haviland from 
Crown Point by Lake Champlain, and Murray from 
Quebec. On September 8th, they joined forces be- 
fore the city, which at once capitulated. Later in 
the year the famous Rogers with two hundred 
rangers went West and took Fort Detroit. French 
power in Canada was gone, and only Louisiana re- 
mained of the great American empire which Louis 
XV. had inherited. 

The English cause in India, which we left after 
the battle of Plassey, and dive's subjugation of 
Bengal, was advancing in Madras towards a tri- 
umphant close. Of the three European Powers, 
which rivalled one another in the East, the events 
of the war made England undisputed head. At the 
close of 1759, an attempt was made by the Dutch 
to break the paramount power of the English in 
Bengal. They entered into an intrigue with Meer 
Jaffier. The trade of their settlement at Chinsurah 
had been seriously affected by the new privileges 
granted to Clive ; they had observed the natural dis- 
like of the Nabob for his new over-lord and deter- 
mined on hostile action. This danger was averted 
by Colonel Forde's victory over the Dutch at 
Biderra (November, 1759). 

The contest with the French in the South was 
being waged while Clive was completing his ascend- 
ancy over Bengal. The French Government at first 
sent larger reinforcements than the English Minis- 
ters, although they failed to respond to later de- 
mands for further help. Although inferior in every 
other part of the world, on the Coromandel Coast 



1761] Pill's War Minislry. i6i 

the French navy was for some time superior in 
number to the English, Count d'Ach6 commanding 
eight ships of the line and one frigate, to the seven 
ships of the line of Pococke, who had succeeded 
Watson. This superiority was, however, never 
turned to advantage, as the French admiral be- 
lieved it to be more important to preserve his own 
fleet than to destroy his enemy, with the result that 
the English operations on land were conducted 
with the advantages of co-operation with the fleet, 
while the French were never able to rely on help from 
Count d'Ach^. The naval plan in the earlier part 
of this campaign consisted of one feature — the at- 
tempts of Pococke to compel the French to decisive 
battle, and the success of d'Ach^ in baffling this at- 
tempt. During twenty-nine months the French ad- 
miral only spent twelve days on the Coromandel 
Coast, retiring, time after time, to the Isle of France 
(Mauritius). The commander of the French land 
forces was Lally, a man of Irish Jacobite family who 
bitterly hated the English. He was a capable 
soldier of fiery activity, but lacking in qualities of 
leadership, totally ignorant of Indian warfare, scorn- 
ful of native assistance, and careless of native pride. 
He landed at Pondicherry in May, 1758, with one 
thousand European soldiers (many of them Irish), 
which was the largest European army landed in 
India till that day. Fort St. David was promptly 
besieged, surrendered on June 2, 1758, and was 
razed to the ground. Lally desired to lay siege to 
Madras immediately, but d'Ache declined to co- 
operate. In August, Pococke sighted d'Ach^'s fleet 



1 62 William Pitt. [1757- 

and gave chase, but the French escaped to Pondi- 
cherry, and the following month sailed to the Isle of 
France. Lally in December besieged Madras with 
an army of two thousand seven hundred Europeans 
and four thousand sepoys, the English force con- 
sisting of one thousand eight hundred Europeans 
and three thousand two hundred natives. The city 
was gallantly defended, and on February i6, 1759, 
the arrival of Pococke's fleet raised the siege. 
Lally's appeal to the home government for fresh 
help was fruitless. Pitt on the other hand was now 
alive to the grandeur of the opportunity, and, in 
October, Admiral Cornish arrived with four ships of 
the line, and Colonel Eyre Coote landed at Madras 
with the 84th Regiment, to take over the command. 
From this point the English were continually on the 
offensive, and on January 22, 1760, the great battle of 
Wandewash was fought. This battle was decisive of 
the fate of Madras, as Plassey had decided the fate 
of Bengal. Coote gradually reduced the French 
fortresses in the Carnatic, and in December besieged 
Pondicherry, where Lally and the remaining French 
troops had taken refuge. The town was also block- 
aded by sea, and although the resistance was con- 
tinued in face of famine and disease, on January 16, 
1 76 1, Pondicherry surrendered, and Lally with two 
thousand French became prisoners of war. Thus 
ended the French power in India. 

On October 25,1 760, an event occurred of the great- 
est importance to Pitt. George II. died and was suc- 
ceeded by his grandson. The old King had been 
for long the bitter enemy of the Minister, who had 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 163 

made the concluding years of his reign so glorious. 
But he was a man of sterling qualities, prejudiced 
indeed, but loyal to his word, and the staunch friend 
of Pitt when once he had given his trust. " Sir, give 
me your confidence and I will deserve it," the Min- 
ister had said to the sovereign. *' Deserve my con- 
fidence and you shall have it," was the King's 
promise in reply, and it was faithfully kept. With 
the accession of George III. the whole atmosphere 
of politics changed. The young King cared little 
for the war, and above all cared nothing for Hanover. 
Of stronger individual mind and will than his pre- 
decessor, his ambition was at first concerned with 
the enlargement of the royal prerogative, rather than 
with foreign affairs. From the moment of his ac- 
cession he was virtuous, conscientious, stubborn, and 
persistent. In the settlement of all questions that 
arose during his reign, his character was an important 
factor, and although his throne was never occupied 
by a man of purer motives or more immaculate life, 
few British sovereigns have exercised a less happy 
influence on the destiny of their kingdom. The 
narrowness of his mind, his pride, his consciousness 
of probity gave strength to a tenacious and persistent 
will. The first two kings of the House of Hanover 
compensated themselves for the loss of monarchical 
right by the enjoyment of monarchical privileges in 
private life; George III. loved virtue and could de- 
vote his entire energy to the pursuit of power. His 
mother had inculcated this equal love for virtue and 
power, and her scheme had been successfully accom- 
plished. The young King, born and bred a Briton, 



164 William Pitt. [1757- 

felt neither the fear nor the gratitude which the 
Whig oligarchy impressed on his two predecessors, 
and he entered into his kingdom with the intention 
of ruling it. In order that he might approach that 
object it was necessary that the war should end, as 
the war meant Pitt, and Pitt, the idol of the people, 
was too powerful a Minister to accord with the new 
sovereign's nascent project. It was therefore with a 
preconceived plan to arrange peace at the earliest 
possible opportunity, and in order for that to get rid 
of Pitt, that George III. began his reign. 

His mother, the Dowager Princess of Wales, and 
Lord Bute, who had long been a ruling power in the 
Princess's household, were prepared to stimulate and 
assist the King. Lord Bute was destined to play a 
leading part in the first years of the reign. He was 
a Scottish nobleman, very vain and punctilious, 
lacking broad sagacity and wisdom, but with some 
taste and talent for the engrossing duties of Court 
ambitions. Few men have been more hated by the 
English people, but there is little doubt that the 
grave accusations made against him of corruption 
and immorality were untrue. The evidence on 
which they rest is tainted. The part which Bute was 
called to play demanded talents of the highest kind ; 
he was to follow a Minister whose policy had won un- 
paralleled success and glory, without popularity and 
with' little Parliamentary influence he was to sup- 
plant Pitt and the Whig nobles in the Government, 
gradually to encroach upon aristocratic privilege in 
the interests of his master, and make peace when 
war was popular. If he had possessed the courage 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 165 

and obstinacy of the King, he would have succeeded 
better, but he was timid and weak, and but for the 
help he received from some Whigs, such as Fox and 
Grenville, his task would have been wholly unac- 
complished. Bute had been very friendly with Pitt, 
and supported his Ministry, but some months before 
George II. died a coolness between them had sprung 
up. 

On October 28th, Bute was sworn of the Privy 
Council without office. The King received the old 
Minister cordially and pressed him to continue in 
office, and there was no immediate change. An 
incident occurred, however, when his first speech 
from the throne was being considered by Ministers, 
which was an intimation of the policy that would 
be pursued. In the draft submitted to Ministers oc- 
curred the phrase, '^ this bloody war" ; this Pitt re- 
garded as an unjustifiable reflection on his policy, 
and insisted on an alteration. When the speech 
was delivered his Majesty referred with pride to the 
victories won, but declared he would have been hap- 
pier still if he could have found his kingdom at 
peace; "but since the ambition, injurious encroach- 
ments, and dangerous designs of our enemies ren- 
dered this war both just and necessary, I am 
determined to promote this war with vigour." The 
speech also praised the equanimity and perseverance, 
almost beyond example, of the Prussian King. Par- 
liament displayed its now customary union in voting 
supplies, which this year reached the figure of £\%- 
616,119 — ^^ increase of four millions on the sum 
voted for 1760. The session was a quiet one. 



1 66 William Pitt. [1757- 

Bute was attempting to divide the Whigs in order 
that he might rule them, and though outwardly 
friendly with Pitt, confessed to his intimate Bubb 
Doddington his design to remove him. Two days 
after ParHament was dissolved important ministerial 
changes began. Leggewas dismissed from his office 
as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He had offended 
Bute in earlier years over a Hampshire election. Lord 
Holderness, Pitt's co-Secretary of State, was retired 
on a pension, and Bute took his place, while Lord 
Barrington became Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
and two of the younger men who had devoted them- 
selves to Bute, Charles Townshend and Sir Francis 
Dashwood, received important posts. Townshend 
was a brilliant wit, eloquent, clever, irresponsible, 
and unscrupulous, who dealt with politics in a spirit 
of careless gaiety. Notwithstanding his utterly su- 
perficial character he was not without influence on 
the history of his country, for he played a part in 
preparing the catastrophe which was to cloud George 
HL's reign. Sir Francis Dashwood exercised the 
vices of his time, but displayed none of its charm ; 
he was neither moral nor competent. The general 
election followed these changes, and it was car- 
ried out under the superintendence of Newcastle 
and, to a less extent, of Bute. Practically it was not 
fought on political lines at all, and was remarkable 
mainly as the first in which boroughs were openly 
bought and sold to any wide extent. The war still 
continued on the Continent, and though no pitched 
battle was fought, the year 1761 was most injurious 
to Frederick. Ferdinand was more successful against 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 167 



« 



De Broglie and Soubise. On July 15th, he won the 
victory of Kirch Daubern, against the combined 
French armies, but before the close of the j^ear, the 
French, thanks chiefly to their numbers, retrieved 
their former position. Even in this languid close 
of the war the influence of the Pompadour was felt ; 
Soubise and De Broglie quarrelled, as was the habit 
of French generals at this time, and it was De Brog- 
lie, the able general, who was recalled, and Soubise, 
the hero of Rossbach, who remained in command. 
But the belligerent Powers were weary of the war, 
and a more serious effort was made this year to se- 
cure peace. Choiseul with great difficulty persuaded 
Maria Theresa, Elizabeth, and their minor allies to 
agree in a joint declaration, stating their readiness 
to treat, and inviting England and Prussia to send 
plenipotentiaries to a congress at Ausburg. To this 
the two latter countries readily agreed in a counter- 
declaration. A preliminary negotiation was also 
arranged between France and England. 

Pitt retained these negotiations in his own hand ; 
he had submitted to Bute's ministerial changes, but 
in the negotiations for peace he was determined to 
be sovereign over Bute, as in the conduct of the war 
he had been sovereign over Newcastle. The nego- 
tiations'^ opened with an offer from France, which 
was broad enough to prove the sincerity of Choiseul. 
The French memorial stated that although it was 
hoped that the separate peace between England and 
France would secure the general peace of Europe, 

* These papers are contained in Thackeray, i., 506 et seq.^ and 
ii,, Appendix V. 



1 68 William Pitt, [1757- 

yet separate negotiations were desirable, " as the na- 
ture of the objects which have occasioned the war 
between France and England is totally foreign to 
the disputes in Germany " ; and offered as a basis to 
the treaty that '' the two Crowns shall remain in 
possession of what they have conquered from each 
other," separate dates during the year for Europe, 
the West Indies, and the East Indies being named 
as the occasion on which the conquests should be 
definitely ascertained. Pitt's reply accepted the 
general retention of conquests as a proper basis, 
but demurred to the fixing of specific dates or 
epochs. He also declared his intention to support 
his Majesty's allies, " whether in the course of the 
negotiation . . . or in the continuance of the 
war." Pitt was planning to conquer Belle Isle, and 
was anxious to avoid losing the benefit of such a 
success, which he unduly valued, by fixing too early 
dates for ascertaining conquests ; Choiseul, on the 
other hand, was naturally anxious not to include in 
the necessary cessions any further conquests which 
might be made by England. The plan of a suspen- 
sion of hostilities during the negotiation was not 
even suggested. Although no agreement was reached 
on this question of dates, each Power appointed 
special emissaries, Bussy being sent to England and 
Hans Stanley to Paris. Pitt's instructions to Stanley 
fix two main and essential points for his guidance, 
firstly, that he is to maintain *' constant possession 
of the strong ground, which the Due de Choi- 
seul's memorial of the 26th March has given," and 
secondly that, ** whatever shall be happily agreed 



17^1] Pitfs War Ministry. 169 

between us and the most Christian King, relative to 
the particular war between the two Crowns, be ren- 
dered binding, final and conclusive, independent of 
the issue of the negotiations at Augsburg for ad- 
justing and terminating the disputes of Germany, 
and for retaining the general peace thereof." Stan- 
ley was also instructed to receive all proposals ad 
referendum, to express the constant resolution of 
the English King to support Prussia, and further " to 
give a watchful attention to the conduct and motion 
of the Spanish Ambassador." There was some 
delay in Bussy's arrival, a delay which Pitt regarded 
as an affront, but which, in reality, was an amusing 
testimony to the awe which was felt by the French 
envoy for the English Minister. Stanley writes to 
Pitt: 

" The Duke de Choiseul informed me of the awe with 
which M. de Bussy was struck by you, and said he was 
not surprised at it, car le pauvre diable tremblait de peur 
en partant. He was so much frightened that he wrote 
for a passport to return ; the Duke showed me this re- 
quest in his own hand. His reflection upon it was, 
Apparemment, Sire, quil a deplu a Monsieur Pitt ; qui 
I 'aura fait sauter par les feiietres'' 

Stanley's interview with Choiseul was friendly, 
but the difficulty of fixing dates was the first barrier 
to be surmounted. Belle Isle fell to the English 
invaders on June 7th, and Pitt was doubtless influ- 
enced by this to make a concession on the point. 
The British memorial of June 17th agreed that the 
dates suggested by France (with the exception of 



170 William Pitt. [1757- 

that fixed for Europe which was already passed) 
should be the epochs to fix the uti possidetis. The 
conditions attached were first, that the peace should 
be independent of the congress at Augsburg, and 
secondly that preliminary articles should be signed 
by August I, 1 76 1. *' With regard to Belle Isle, 
his Majesty will agree, in the said future treaty, 
to enter into compensation for that important con- 
quest." Choiseul's first proposal to Stanley, on the 
question of compensation for the various conquests 
which France would cede to England, was given on 
condition of complete secrecy. The Ministers of 
Spain and of the Empress Queen were opposing 
the peace with England, and Choiseul represented 
himself as struggling for peace with the aid of the 
King himself, but against the strong influence pos- 
sessed by the Catholic ambassadors. This "' little 
leaf," as it was called, which was only delivered on 
the promise that it was not to be urged against 
Choiseul in any future treaty, made the following 
proposal : 

" Monsieur le Due de Choiseul propose a Monsieur 
Stanley : il demande la restitution de la Guadaloupe et 
de Mariegalante, ainsi celle de Goree pour I'isle de Mi- 
norque ; il propose la cession entiere du Canada a I'ex- 
ception de I'isle Royale (C. Breton I.) ou il ne sera point 
etabli de fortifications, et fixer cette cession la France 
demande la conservation de la peche de morue telle 
qu'est etablie dans le traite d'Utrecht, et une fixation 
des limites du Canada dans la partie de I'Ohio deter- 
minees par les eaux pendantes, et fixees si clairement par 
le traite qu'il ne puisse plus y avoir aucune contestation 



1761] Pitfs War Ministry. 171 

entre les deux nations par rapport aux dites limites. 
La France rendra ce que ses armees ont conquises en 
Allemagne sur les Allies Britanniques." 

Pitt's letter to Stanley on this offer remarked that 
it opened a most interesting scene, and proceeded to 
comment vigorously upon the proposals. He made 
the following very different proposal : 

" (i) The cession, without new limits, of all Canada and 
its dependencies, of C. Breton and all islands in the Gulf 
awd river of St. Lawrence with the right of fishery. 

" (ii) The cession of Senegal and Goree. 

" (iii) The reduction of Dunkirk. 

" (iv) Equitable partition of the neutral Islands. 

" (v) The restoration of Minorca and destruction of 
French settlements in Sumatra. 

" (vi) Restitution of all conquests in Hesse, Hanover, 
and Westphalia. 

" On the above points his Majesty's intention will be 
found fixed and unalterable." 

The shock of such different proposals might well 
have precluded further discussion, but Stanley's let- 
ter to Pitt (of July 1st) showed Choiseul in a mood 
for agreement. He yielded all that was asked for in 
America except the privilege of the fishery, on which 
he laid the greatest stress throughout all the nego- 
tiations, understanding the importance of the ques- 
tion much better than Stanley desired. His new 
proposal was that England should name *' a port, 
totally defenceless, at all times in her power," which 
would serve as a shelter for the fisherman. " Thus 
far he will go," wrote Stanley, " and I think he will 



172 William Pitt. [1757- 

throw himself into the arms of Austria, rather than 
proceed further." He agreed to cede Senegal, but 
demanded restitution of Goree on the ground that 
France must possess an African port for the ship- 
ping of negroes, or the West Indian sugar islands 
would be without value. On the question of Dun- 
kirk, which was in reality a mere obsolete tradition 
in English policy, he declined to agree, but made 
no difficulty about the neutral islands, Sumatra or 
India. He agreed to restore Minorca, but laughed 
at the idea that Belle Isle was an equivalent. Choi- 
seul further insisted that the conquests in Germany 
were of great importance to England, and gave 
Stanley the impression " that the Court of Vienna, 
more exasperated than ever, has made a fresh pro- 
posal of dedoinmagements in Flanders, for the 
consequences that may attend the rupture of a sep- 
arate treaty with us." A few days later Choiseul 
made the very important announcement that pro- 
positions had been opened to France, hinting that 
if she continued the war, she would have ** new 
allies, meaning Spain." It was this intrusion of 
foreign matter into the negotiations that proved 
fatal to peace, as it is unlikely that the small 
difference between the French and English pro- 
posals would of itself have caused Pitt to break 
off the treaty. 

The new difficulty was mentioned in a French 
memorial dated July 15th. Reference was made to 
the long standing disagreements between England 
and Spain regarding certain English settlements 
on Spanish territory in the bay of Honduras, the 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 173 

Spanish claim to fish off Newfoundland, and the cap- 
tures of Spanish ships during the war. These for 
some two years had been the subject of embittered 
relations between Spain and England, and the old 
spirit of Bourbon alliance was risen so high, that 
Choiseul, much against his earlier views, adopted the 
strange course of presenting a note in which he 
stated the Spanish case, and continued : ''The King 
. . . cannot disguise from England the danger he 
apprehends and of which he must necessarily par- 
take, if these objects, which seem nearly to concern 
his Catholic Majesty, should be the occasion of 
a war." This amiable conjunction of the Bourbons 
raised in Pitt the highest indignation. Abandoning 
the mannered language of diplomacy, he addressed 
the French envoy in peremptory tones : 

" It is my duty further to declare to you in plain 
terms, in the name of his Majesty, that he will not suffer 
the disputes with Spain to be blended, in any manner 
whatever, in the negotiation of peace between the two 
Crowns ; to which I must add, that it will be considered 
as an affront to his Majesty's dignity, and as a thing 
incompatible with the sincerity of the negotiations, to 
make further mention of such a circumstance. More- 
over, it is expected that France will not at any Xivao. pre- 
sume a right of intermeddling between Great Britain and 
Spain. These considerations, so just and indispensable, 
have determined his Majesty to order me to return 
to you the memorial which occasions this, as wholly 
inadmissible." 

Writing to the Earl of Bristol (July 28, 1761), 
British Ambassador at Madrid, Pitt declared that 



174 William Pitt, [1757- 

" nothing could equal the King's surprise and regret 
at a transaction so unprecedented," and instructed 
him to remonstrate with energy and firmness against 
the French memorial, unless it was disavowed by 
the Spanish Court. In reply to the three points in 
which the Spanish demanded redress, Pitt stated 
that the Newfoundland fishery was a matter held 
sacred, and that no concession would be made to 
Spain, however abetted and supported, and that the 
restitution of prizes made against the flag of Spain 
was a matter for the British prize courts to decide. 
As regards Honduras he would negotiate. The 
Ambassador was also directed to inquire the mean- 
ing of the naval armaments preparing in the ports 
of Spain. Wall, the Spanish Minister, admitted 
that the memorial had been presented by Bussy 
with the knowledge and approval of the Spanish 
Court, but asserted that it was not believed that it 
would ^\\^ offence to Great Britain. France had 
" spontaneously offered (in case the disputes of 
Great Britain and Spain should at any time here- 
after occasion a rupture between the two Courts) 
to unite her forces with those of Spain to prevent 
the English encroachments in America ; an offer 
which the Spanish monarch had received with great 
cordiality." This was a very significant statement, 
but the tenor of Wall's answer to Bristol was on the 
whole amicable. Pitt had expressed himself to Bussy 
in terms which gave great offence to Spain and 
France, but he did not allow his indignation to ter- 
minate the negotiations with Choiseul. On August 
i6th, he delivered to Bussy a further reply which 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 175 

was itself written in a haughty and scolding temper, 
but was accompanied by a memorial that comprised 
important concessions. The note to Bussy after 
justifying the refusal to accept either the memorial 
on behalf of Spain or any memorial stipulating for 
the desertion of the Prussian King by Great Britain 
and stating, what might well have been omitted, 
that the King perceived that the peace so much de- 
sired is far distant, ends by offering a conference on 
the final memorials of the two Courts. The British 
memorial made a great concession to France on 
the fishery question. If Dunkirk were demolished, 
French subjects were to enjoy the privilege of fish- 
ing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (on condition that 
they abstained from fishing on all coasts appertain- 
ing to Great Britain), together with the privilege 
granted by the Treaty of Utrecht of fishing and drying 
on a specified stretch of the banks of Newfoundland. 
The Isle of St. Pitrre would be ceded as a shelter 
and port, on the conditions that no fortification 
be erected, that the vessels of no other nation 
be admitted, that the possession of the island be 
not construed as conferring any right of fishing or 
drying in any other part than that fixed by the 
Treaty of Utrecht, and that an English commissary 
be allowed to reside in the island. 

On the other most difficult question of the entire 
negotiation, Pitt adhered to his demand that all con- 
quests in Westphalia should be evacuated, and again 
proposed that " Great Britain and France shall be at 
liberty to support their respective allies and auxili- 
aries in the particular contest for the recovery of 



176 William Pitt. [1757- 

Silesia, according to the engagements entered into 
by each Crown." In the dispatch to Stanley cover- 
ing this memorial, Pitt writes : 

" After many and long deliberations the advice most 
humbly offered to his Majesty has been that it is more 
expedient not to break off at once the negotiation with 
France on the fact of the ultimatutn of England without 
putting once more to the test the too justly suspected 
sincerity of France, by the great concession on the part 
of England of a liberty to fish in the said gulfs, and of 
an abri there for the French fishing vessels. 
I will not conceal from you that little more is expected 
here from the facility, great and essential as it is, with 
regard to the liberty of fishing in the gulfs and the abri 
here offered to France than to put that Court more in 
the wrong, in case it shall reject these so favourable 
conditions of peace." 

The last memorial of France (September 13, 1761) 
came very near to accepting Pitt's offer. As regards 
the fisheries, Choiseul asked for the island of Con- 
ceau,or if that was still denied, the island of St. Pierre 
with the island of Maquelon would be accepted as 
a shelter, on the conditions specified by Pitt. At 
the same time it was agreed to demolish Dunkirk. 
On Continental questions Choiseul was firmer. 
France would evacuate her conquests in countries 
belonging to the Landgrave of Hesse, the Duke of 
Brunswick, and the Elector of Hanover, which con- 
quests were connected with the British war, but 
conquests from the King of Prussia would only be 
evacuated by the consent of the Empress Queen at 



1761] Pitfs War Ministry, 177 

the congress of Augsburg. The French King de- 
clared himself willing to stipulate that he would 
grant no succour to his allies for the continuance of 
the war against Prussia ; but only on the conditions 
that Great Britain would enter into a like agreement 
with respect to the King of Prussia. Pitt's reply 
was a brief one. At a meeting of the Cabinet on 
September 15th, it was unanimously resolved that 
" as the Court of France, after so many variations 
and retractions on her part, during this long depend- 
ing negotiation, has finally thought fit not to accept 
the terms offered . . . you (Stanley) are forth- 
with to demand a passport, and return to England." 
Choiseul in his last note to Stanley writes that the 
King of France 

'' hoped that some more happy opportunity will produce 
more effectual inclinations to peace, and he has charged 
me to observe to you that you may assure the King of 
England that he will always find him disposed to renew 
the negotiation, and to consent to equitable conditions, 
which may establish a firm union between the two 
Crowns." 

Pitt's conduct of these negotiations has been 
severely criticised. It was not in matters of diplo- 
macy that his genius shone. Compromise was for- 
eign to his nature, which loved bold action and fixed 
conceptions. With no taste for bargaining, he was 
ready to make concessions, as the history of the 
negotiations clearly proves, but he expected his con- 
cessions to be accepted as final and without criti- 
cism. Moreover, his style was unusually direct and 



178 William Pitt. [1757- 

salient, and while Choiseul urbanely hinted his ob- 
jections the more formal grandees of Spain declared 
that Pitt's manner was an international outrage. 
Apart from his methods, which were not calculated 
to heighten the comity of nations, the principles 
which Pitt laid down were open to criticism. It has 
been seen that as regards the restitution of colonial 
conquests, he and Choiseul reached a practicable 
agreement ; but as regards the European question 
they were as far apart at the end as at the beginning 
of their discussion. In the nature of things, this 
was perhaps inevitable. Each had an ally which 
was no party to the negotiation, and Choiseul was 
as determined not to desert the Empress Queen as 
Pitt was to abide by his engagement with the King 
of Prussia. Pitt's offer that both France and Great 
Britain should be free to continue to support their 
allies was reasonable, but he combined with this an 
imperative command that France should evacuate 
all conquests from Prussia. These conquests were 
made, and were actually administered in the name 
of Maria Theresa, and France could not comply 
with the demand without open desertion of her ally. 
Pitt's insistence on this demand appears the most 
unreasonable part of his conduct. There is a note 
in the handwriting of Hardwicke,"^ in which the 
Chancellor states that " Stanley did say clearly, and 
to myself, that he thought Mr. Pitt's manner of 
negotiating spoilt the peace, and that France, though 
humbled and weakened, was still a Power which had 
an existence in the world." The answer to that 



* Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham^ October I, 1761, 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 179 

criticism, which was just so far as Pitt's manner and 
phrases are concerned, is in the very substantial con- 
cessions which were offered to France after a war of 
unexampled disaster. The restoration of Guada- 
loupe, Mariegalante, Belle Isle, and the important 
privilege of fishing was not such an offer as would 
be made to a Power which was regarded as finally 
ruined, and it is by the substantial offers he makes, 
and not by his idiosyncrasies of manner, that a 
statesman is to be judged. Judged by this test, it 
is clear that his terms were such as might honour- 
ably have been accepted by France, with one ex- 
ception, and it is probable that Choiseul would have 
welcomed them but for the entanglements of the 
Austrian alliance, and the prospect opened by the 
Spanish quarrel with Great Britain. In keeping 
faith with Prussia, Pitt was only observing his treaty 
engagements, and in his protest against the French 
adoption of Spain's grievances he acted in a right 
and proper spirit. 

Pitt yielded on the fishery question against his 
judgment, and a succession of Ministers at the For- 
eign Ofifice have had reason to regret that the con- 
cessions originally made by Bolingbroke at Utrecht 
were not at this time summarily withdrawn. The im- 
portance of the question was better understood in 
1761 than 1713, but it is clear that Choiseul was de- 
termined to carry the point. Pitt is always credited 
with the wish to ruin France altogether as a mari- 
time Power, and that was his ambition, but great 
nations are not ruined by a single war, however dis- 
astrous, and Pitt realised as clearly as anyone the 



i8o William Pitt. [1757- 



power of revival which France possessed. That re- 
vival was easier and more rapid because of the fish- 
ery concessions which he was compelled to offer, 
partly by the firmness of Choiseul and partly by the 
views of the English Cabinet. 

Three days after the meeting at which the decis- 
ion to break off the negotiation was taken, Pitt and 
Temple presented their famous advice to the King 
on the Spanish question. They urged that Spain 
enforced her demands *' through the channel and by 
the compulsion of a foreign power " ; this amounted 
to " a full declaration and avowal at last made by 
the Spanish Ministry of a total union of councils and 
interests between the two monarchies of the House 
of Bourbon." Their advice to the King was an im- 
mediate declaration of war against Spain. "^ 

The Cabinet was startled by this pronouncement. 
*' I submitted my advice to a trembling council," 
said Pitt some years later. Pitt is said to have re- 
ceived private information of the new Family Com- 
pact which had been signed between France and 
Spain on August I5th.f He did not lay this before 
the Cabinet, but he showed them a letter from Stan- 
ley : ** I have secretly seen an article drawn up 
between France and Spain, in which the former en- 
gages to support the interests of the latter equally 
with her own in the negotiation of peace with Eng- 
land. . . . Bussy was directed not immediate- 
ly to sign the peace if it could be agreed with 
England." He could also point to the express state- 

* Grenville Papers^ i. , 386. 
\ See Appendix. 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. i8i 

ment of Wall that France had made an offer of 
guaranty to Spain which had been accepted, and 
although the guaranty did not refer to the present 
war, this admission of Wall's was a clear indication 
that the House of Bourbon was once more united. 
Moreover, Choiseul had hinted to Stanley that if 
peace was not concluded, France '' would have new 
allies, meaning Spain. " These were overt and grave 
facts, such as responsible Ministers were bound to 
consider. Again and again the statesmen of Great 
Britain were faced by a threatening union of the 
Bourbon dynasties, and that union had always been 
considered the most formidable enemy of British 
interests. France had been driven out of the New 
World, but Spain remained, and Spain was still the 
greatest American Power. No one could doubt that 
the situation created by the new alliance was one 
which might threaten the duration of England's new 
dominion in the West. How was the situation to 
be met? Pitt was for immediate war. Throughout 
his life he had regarded the House of Bourbon as the 
enemy which must be destroyed, and his mind har- 
boured no scruples about the justification of war by 
some irremediable injury or wrong. France had de- 
clined peace, and Spain had confessed her union 
with France : therefore Spain must be punished. 
'' Now is the time for humbling the whole House 
of Bourbon ! We must not allow them a moment 
to breathe ; self-preservation bids us crush them, 
before they can combine or recollect themselves." 
It was the passionate conviction and the daring pol- 
icy of the statesman who by some sublime instinct 



1 82 William Pitt. [1757- 

realised the destiny of his nation, for in that arro- 
gant utterance of Pitt the history of England dur- 
ing the eighteenth century was epitomised. 

Pitt's only supporter was Temple. The King in- 
formed Pitt that he would take no resolution with 
regard to Spain until Stanley was arrived from Paris. 

" Mr. Pitt adhered to his paper," writes Newcastle * ; 
" said he would not execute any other measure, and insin- 
uated that the other Secretary of State (Bute) might do 
it. Mr. Pitt lamented his situation, repented of the dif- 
ficulties he had been led into by the French negotiations, 
and was determined now to abide by his own opinion. 
(After Pitt was gone), Duke of Devonshire and I de- 
clared that no consideration or threat from Mr. Pitt 
should make us depart from our opinion. My Lord 
Bute said we were right ; that the thing was over ; that 
after what happened Mr. Pitt and my Lord Temple 
could not stay. . . . We both said that, without de- 
parting from our opinion, we wished anything might 
be done to keep Mr. Pitt ; my Lord Bute said that was 
impossible." 

Letters arrived from Stanley saying that Choiseul 
was sincere for peace and that Spain should be 
dropped. These letters made no impression on Pitt, 
but the King and Lord Bute laid stress on them. 
" The King," writes Newcastle on September 26th, 
"seems every day more offended with Mr. Pitt 
and plainly wants to get rid of him at all events." 
On October ist, he reports that Stanley has returned 
from Paris, " tending to war not peace." On Octo- 
ber 2d, the Cabinet met to decide finally whether 

* To Hardwicke, 21st September, Memows of Rockingham. 



17611 Pitt's War Ministry. 183 

Pitt's advice should be accepted, and on their de- 
cision to reject his poHcy, Pitt, with Lord Temple, 
declared his resolution to resign. 

In the Newcastle papers there is a very interesting 
account of this famous Cabinet meeting, written by 
the old Duke, who, without fully realising it, had 
been the instrument of Bute. This was the last 
council Pitt attended as a commoner, as '' the great 
commoner,"who in four years had made himself the 
most famous Minister of the world and his nation 
the most powerful. Pitt was not loved in Europe, 
but the greatness of his action was even more con- 
spicuous from the distant standpoint of foreign na- 
tions than from a nearer view. To the enemies of 
England and himself he seemed the very personifi- 
cation of an unconquerable and ruthless people, to 
them it must have seemed incredible that the organ- 
iser of such victories should sit at the council table 
almost an alien. Yet such was the case. There was 
but one man in the Ministry made illustrious by Pitt 
who was his friend ; the others had felt his power 
and knew his talents, but not one of them under- 
stood or liked or trusted him. Newcastle and Hard- 
wicke exchanged volumes of secret criticism upon 
their colleague, Granville was old and envious, even 
the calm sense of Devonshire preferred his fellow- 
duke to the genius who was not formed in the 
familiar Whiggish mould. Bute and Mansfield 
watched with sinister complacence the quarrel be- 
tween the oligarchs whom they despised and the 
national statesman whom they feared. Pitt, in fact, 
great though his power had been for a short space, 



184 William Pitt. [1757- 

had never conquered the aversion of the Whig mag- 
nates, and now that he had done his work they were 
willing enough to let him go. For a moment he had 
imposed his dictatorship upon the powerful class 
which had never recognised his credentials. He had 
snatched from fate his hour of supremacy. Before 
the Cabinet broke up Pitt delivered to his colleagues 
an intensely arrogant and intensely characteristic 
piece of eloquence ; he knew that his power had 
other sources than theirs, and this he told them ; he 
knew that his work had been infinitely greater than 
theirs, and this he told them. Even the hurried 
memorandum of Newcastle reveals the pride, the 
tone of mastership, of this historic apology for 
genius. 

" Mr. Pitt recapitulated his own situation ; called as 
he was (without having ever asked any one single employ- 
ment in his life) by his sovereign, and he might say in 
some degree by the voice of the people, to assist the 
State, when others had abdicated the service of it, he 
had gone through more difficulties than ever man did. 
Though he supposed it might be good fortune he had 
succeeded in his measures taken for the honour and in- 
terest of the nation. In the execution of those measures 
he had met with great obstruction from some (hinting at 
principal persons) who did not wish the success of them. 
There was hardly one expedition which he had proposed 
though the most probable and at the last attended with 
the best success that had not been before treated as 
chimerical and ridiculous. . . . He more than hinted 
that the success was singly owing to him. . . . The 
papers he had in his bag (meaning my Lord Bristol's let- 
ter and Mr. Wall's paper) fixed an eternal stain on the 



1761] Pitt's War Ministry. 185 

Crown of England if proper measures were not taken 
upon it. . . . He would not continue without having 
the direction." * 

Pitt accepted from the King a pension of ;^300O 
a year for three lives, and the title Baroness of 
Chatham was conferred upon his wife. For a time 
this acceptance by a poor man of a moderate income 
from the nation which he had served so ably dimmed 
the lustre of his popularity. It was industriously 
rumoured that the patriot Minister had been bought, 
and that having accepted the bounty of the sovereign 
he would no longer act as the disinterested servant 
of the people. Pitt replied to his traducers by a 
dignified letter, addressed to the Town Clerk of 
London. '' Most gracious marks of His Majesty's 
approbation of my services followed my resignation ; 
they are unmerited and unsolicited, and I shall ever 
be proud to have received them from the best of 
sovereigns." The words of Edmund Burke dispose 
of the question : " With regard to the pension and 
title, it is a shame that any defence should be neces- 
sary." It is really a testimony to the loftiness of 
the public conception of Pitt's character that, in an 
age when pensions were so freely given, this pension 
should have excited any remark. 

The glorious administration of one man was 
ended. From despondency, Great Britain had been 
raised to the position of first nation in the world ; 
from a condition of lethargy and confusion her army 
and navy had been urged to victory after victory in 



* British Museum Add. MSS. 32929, f. 18. 



1 86 William Pitt. [1757-1761] 



three continents and on every ocean. The Ameri- 
can Empire which had been restricted to the Atlantic 
seaboard now stretched to the Ohio and controlled 
the St. Lawrence. To the north and to the west 
the pioneers of the British race were to receive, as 
an inheritance, a vast empire bounded by the Arctic 
Sea and the Pacific Ocean. In India a few scattered 
factories had been made into an empire and both in 
Bengal and the Carnatic the foundations of supreme 
dominion had been surely laid. Above all, Great 
Britain had asserted more absolutely and more uni- 
versally than in any previous era that command of 
the sea which has been at all times the means at 
once of her safety and of her imperial expansion. 
There had been admirals as valiant as Hawke or 
Boscawen, but never before a statesman who had 
perceived, as Pitt perceived, that the naval force of 
Great Britain could be used to isolate and conquer 
the arms of her European enemies in every part of 
the globe. The navy of France was crippled and 
her colonies reduced, and when Pitt learned that 
Spain had joined France he saw that there were 
fresh worlds to conquer, and that the empire which 
Columbus had founded would offer rich spoils to the 
countrymen of Raleigh and Drake. 





CHAPTER V. 

THE PEACE OF PARIS, AND THE STAMP ACT. 
1761-1765. 

PITT'S conduct after his resignation, said Burke, 
set the seal upon his fame. The greatest 
anxiety was felt by the Ministers as to the 
effect of his actions in the House, but when the 
House met Pitt " spoke moderately and not much 
of his own situation. Not a word offensive to any 
Minister slipped from him ; on the contrary, he spoke 
with the greatest respect of those who differed from 
him in Council. In short, he blamed nobody but those 
who were for ending the continent part of the war, 
concerning whom he spoke with contempt.""^ Bute's 
first aim was to withdraw from the German war, and 
George Grenville favoured this view, though he 
dared not openly advocate withdrawal. He hinted 
that our success was not owing to the German war, 
but that, said Pitt, was " only saying we have con- 
quered in the wrong way." " If you withdraw 
your troops all France will illuminate ; if feeble or 
narrow-minded measures take hold of our councils 



* Add. MSS. 32931, f. 19. Barrington to Newcastle, Nov. 13, 1761. 

187 



1 88 William Pitt. [i76l- 

we are undone, and I will endeavour to break the 
heart of him who is so."* Before Bute could com- 
plete his plan for abandoning Frederick the Spanish 
question had become acute. When the silver ships 
from America had arrived the Court of Madrid as- 
sumed a more haughty attitude, and declined to 
answer the English inquiries as to the terms of its 
treaty with France. 

On the last day of 1761 war was declared. The 
note delivered to Lord Egremont, by the Spanish 
ambassador, has been described as his Catholic 
Majesty's declaration of war against William Pitt • 
the Count de Fuentes was ordered to declare to the 
British King, to the English nation, and to the 
whole universe, 

*' that the horrors into which the Spanish and English 
nations are going to plunge themselves, must be attri- 
buted only to the pride, and to the immeasurable ambition 
of him who has held the reins of Government, and who 
appears still to hold them, although by another hand. . . . 
The Spanish King's dignity required him to manifest 
his just resentment of the little management, or, to speak 
more properly, of the insulting manner with which all the 
affairs of Spain have been treated during Mr. Pitt's ad- 
ministration, who, finding himself convinced of the jus- 
tice which supported the King in his pretensions, his 
ordinary and last answer was, that he would not relax in 
anything till the Tower of London was taken, sword in 
hand." 

Pitt had returned the answer quoted to only one of 
the Spanish demands, the claim to partake in the 

* Add. MSS. 32932, f. 74. West to Newcastle, Dec. 9, 1761. 



1765J The Peace of Paris. 189 

Newfoundland fisheries. He referred in Parliament 
to '* the notion that he had courted a war with Spain," 
and asserted that he had offered great sacrifices in 
order to secure Spanish friendship (an allusion to the 
oflFer of Gibraltar) and had shown patience and long- 
suffering. 

When the declaration of war was announced, which 
so singularly justified Pitt's prescience, he made a 
speech very creditable to his fame. 

" The moment is come when every man ought to show 
himself for the whole. I do, said he, cruelly as I have 
been treated in pamphlets and libels. And the whole ! 
Be one people ! This war, though it has cut deep into 
our pecuniary, has augmented our military faculties. 
Set that against the debt, that spirit which has made us 
what we are. Forget everything but the public ! For 
the public I forget both my wrongs and my infirmities." * 

"With all his faults," said Newcastle, ''we shall 
want Mr. Pitt if such a complicated, such an exten- 
sive war is to be carried on. I know nobody who 
can plan, or push the execution of any plan agreed 
upon, in the manner Mr. Pitt did." f 

The campaign which followed was briUiantly suc- 
cessful. Pitt himself had planned the conquests in 
the West Indies. In February, Martinique was con- 
quered, J with the Caribbean islands ; in August the 
Havannah fell, the key to Spanish power in Cuba ; 

* Walpole's George III. ed. by E. F. Barker (1894), i., 105. 

I Add. MSS. 32931, f. 45. 

X "The single eloquence of Mr. Pitt can, like an annihilated star, 
shine many months after it has set. I tell you it has conquered 
Martinique." Horace Walpole to Montagu. 



iQO William Pitt, [i76i- 

in September, Ferdinand won another victory over 
the French at Briickenmiile, and in October, Manila, 
with the Philippines, was taken from Spain. These 
glorious results of the policy he had advocated 
raised still higher the public confidence in Pitt, but 
the King and Bute, who, after Pitt's resignation, 
was all powerful, looked askance on the war and 
persisted in their desire for peace. The Bedford 
faction among the Whigs were equally anxious for 
peace, and their leader expressed the belief that 
England was in danger of over-colonising, and that 
her naval monopoly was as dangerous to the liberties 
of Europe as French power under Louis XIV. had 
been ; while Rigby in the Commons lost no oppor- 
tunity of denouncing the German war. The Spanish 
side of the war was firmly supported by Bute, and 
English officers were sent to organise the defence of 
Portugal, which had refused to take side with Spain 
and had been invaded. Pitt in a delightful phrase 
said that England should not take the King of Port- 
ugal on her back, but should set him on his feet and 
put a sword in his hand. It was on the German 
side that Bute intended first to restrict the area of 
the war, and though the subsidy to Frederick was 
paid at the end of 1761, notice was given that the 
convention would not be again renewed. The ene- 
mies of Prussia quickly learned that Frederick was 
to be abandoned. On this question Newcastle and 
Hardwicke, who remembered their struggles for a 
Hanoverian policy in the last reign, differed from 
Bute, and after submitting to many gross indignities 
the old Whig chief on May 26, 1762, resigned his 



1765] The Peace of Paris. 191 

office in the Ministry of which he was the nominal 
chief. His career had commenced when England 
was still excited over the Peace of Utrecht, and it 
lasted till the eve of the Peace of Paris ; it began in 
opposition to the brilliant Toryism of St. John, and 
ended in collision with the more practical but less 
attractive absolutism of Bute. Throughout that 
long interval the Whig oligarchy had ruled the 
Court and the Parliament, and since the death of 
Walpole, Newcastle had been the leading figure 
among the political great families. The resignation 
of Pitt gave the King sufficient control over inter- 
national affairs ; the resignation of Newcastle signal- 
ised the opening of a grand struggle against the 
Parliamentary system by which a few great peers 
engrossed the governing power. Bute was at once 
made First Lord of the Treasury. His first levee 
was crowded, and members of Parliament who had 
been elected under Newcastle's auspices vied with 
bishops to whom Newcastle had given their sees in 
devotion to the new Minister.^^ 

The remarkable pamphlet published in 1761 by 
Lord Bath, entitled Seasonable Hints fro7n an Honest 
Man, stated the argument of George HL's policy 
almost as plausibly as Bath's former teacher Boling- 
broke could have stated it. The bystander, specu- 
lating on national politics, has always remarked that 
there is no deep and abiding principle of party 
division. Bath had been leader of the Whigs who 



* An excellent mot on the conduct of the bishops is attributed to 
Newcastle. " Bishops, like other people," said he, " too often for- 
get their Maker." 



192 William Pitt. il761- 

overthrew Walpole, and his opposition to the great 
Whig had been based on the principles of the Rev- 
olution. He now contended that the principles of 
the Revolution were universally accepted, and that 
Tories themselves were friends of the Hanoverian 
Succession, were believers in the Established Church 
and in the toleration of religious dissent. Such be- 
ing the case, the Tories should be equally eligible 
for the work of Government, the King should be 
permitted to choose his servants from all sections -of 
the nation. But before this could be done, it would 
be necessary for the King to '' break all factions, 
connections, and confederacies," to free himself from 
the leading-strings in which the Whig oligarchy had 
put his predecessors. George HI. cherished the 
noble ambition of being sovereign over a united 
people. The evil of the Whig domination was in 
the proscription of a large part of the nation, and it 
was a generous design of the King's to call back 
from their exile a number of his subjects. But his 
plan was based upon royal supremacy ; his benevo- 
lence flowed from a royal will, and would exercise 
itself through the channels of monarchical influence. 
While he desired that his people should be united, 
he desired still more earnestly that he should be 
supreme sovereign in all departments of Govern- 
ment. The system of the Whigs had been narrow 
and selfish, but -they had always acted through the 
Parliament, they were identified with a Parliament- 
ary constitution, they had established the sovereign- 
ty of the House of Commons, and they held the 
reins of that sovereignty in their own hands. It was 



1765] The Peace of Paris. 193 

evident, therefore, that the King could only carry out 
his plan of reviving monarchical supremacy if he 
secured the interest and support of those who con- 
trolled the House of Commons. If the entire body 
of Whigs had been faithful to the principles of their 
creed, if they had been united in one party, they 
could have defeated the King's aim of ruling by 
Ministers of his own choice. But their division into 
connections held together by ties of birth, competing 
one against the other for the spoils of of^ce, enabled 
the King to play off one faction against the other. 
He became the powerful arbiter. A yet more effect- 
ive method of undermining the supremacy of Parlia- 
ment was also borrowed from the Whig code of 
political strategy. A party in the House of Com- 
mons under direct command was secured by nomi- 
nating members for the Treasury boroughs, which 
had previously been the province of the First Lord, 
and this was the nucleus of the body known as 
King's friends, who voted as the sovereign pleased. 
Hitherto, "the Court" had meant the supporters of 
Government, but George HI. was himself the leader 
of a party, and the friends of the Court were distinct 
from the friends of the Minister. Corruption in all 
its forms, from the gift of a bank-note to the promo- 
tion of a relative, was freely practised in order to 
enlarge and consolidate the King's party, and any 
offensive display of independence was promptly and 
openly punished. The scrupulously moral King 
never hesitated to use bad men as his instruments, 
and felt no shame in corrupting the representatives 

of his people. 
13 



194 Wiltiam Pitt. ti761- 

The first achievement on which the King was set 
was the conclusion of peace. In the year which pro- 
duced the greatest victories of the war the sovereign 
and his Minister were thinking only of peace. Hav- 
ing decided to abandon Frederick, Bute had removed 
the dif^culty which had proved insurmountable in 
the negotiation of Pitt with Choiseul, and the imme- 
diate victories of the navy soon convinced France 
that the Spanish alliance was of no great value, 
while Spain found that she could not conquer Portu- 
gal, and that her great colonial possessions were ex- 
posed. The conduct of Bute was not likely to 
convince the enemies of Great Britain that they 
must submit to ignominious terms. During 1762, 
he attempted to renew negotiations through the 
Sardinian Ambassadors at London and Paris, the 
Count de Viri and the Bailli de Solar, and through 
this channel Choiseul was acquainted with the dis- 
sensions in the British Cabinet. Bute also instructed 
Sir J. Yorke to treat privately with the Court of 
Vienna, without the knowledge of Prussia — a dis- 
ingenuous action which enraged Frederick when he 
heard of it — and actually stated to M. Alt, Minister 
of Hesse at St. James's, " that we are unable to go 
on with the war.'"^ He was also accused of urging 
on the Russian ambassador in England that Russia 
should remain firm to the Austrian Alliance, in order 
that Prussia might be intimidated into peace. Thus 
France and Spain, while depressed by defeat, were 
buoyed up by the knowledge that the chief Minister 

* See Rockingham Memoirs^ i., 97, 98. Bute himself denied these 
accusations : Bisset's Mitchell^ ii., 299. 




Copyright 



Gibbings & Co. 



THE EARL OF BUTE. 

FROM THE PAINTING BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 



1765] The Peace of Paris. 195 

of Great Britain was determined on peace. In his 
relations with other politicians Bute had no difficulty 
in securing a strong peace party. Though he had 
quarrelled with the leading Whigs, who were in the 
direct apostolical succession, and though Pitt and 
the trading classes were against him, he had the 
hearty support of the Bedfords and Fox, and had 
broken the ranks of Pitt's old allies by securing 
George Grenville, who on Newcastle's resignation 
had been made Secretary of State. Grenville had 
held an important place in Pitt's Ministry, but he 
now discovered that the war was mistaken and dis- 
advantageous, and lost no opportunity of denounc- 
ing it. When negotiations were formally renewed, 
Bedford was sent to Paris as special envoy (Septem- 
ber, 1762) and the Due de Nivernois came to Lon- 
don. Bedford had been more eager for concessions 
to France and Spain than Bute himself, and was even 
desirous that the Havannah should be restored to 
Spain without compensation. On this, however, he 
was overruled, and through the influence of Grenville 
Florida was secured as compensation for the richest 
possession of Spain. The negotiations were quickly 
brought to a conclusion, and preliminaries arranged. 
The peace, accepted after a year of splendid vic- 
tory, was less advantageous than that rejected by 
Pitt. France restored Minorca and ceded Nova 
Scotia, Cape Breton, Canada, the islands of Grenada, 
together with Senegal, and evacuated all conquests 
belonging to Hanover, Hesse, Brunswick, and Prus- 
sia : at the same time, it was agreed that the British 
and French armies should be withdrawn from 



ig6 William Pitt, [i76l- 

Germany. In India, conquests made by either nation 
since 1749 were restored, and France engaged not 
to erect fortifications in Bengal. The Havannah 
was restored to Spain in exchange for Florida. 
Portugal was restored to the status quo ante bellum. 
Gaudaloupe, Belle Isle, Desiderade, Mariegalante, 
Martinico, St. Lucia, and Goree were restored to 
France. The Newfoundland fishery was permitted 
to France exactly as on the terms of Utrecht, and 
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence at a distance of three 
leagues from British coasts. Two islands, St. Pierre 
and Miquelon, were granted as a shelter for French 
fishermen. Dunkirk was to be reduced. Spain 
withdrew the claims made on Great Britain, and the 
latter agreed to demolish the fortresses erected on 
the bay of Honduras, where the British right to cut 
logwood was acknowledged. There were important 
differences between the terms of Pitt and Bute. 
With regard to Prussia, Pitt stipulated for the evac- 
uation of all fortresses conquered by France from 
Frederick, and the right of both France and Great 
Britain to assist their allies ; Bute agreed to with- 
draw British troops from the Prussian cause. Bute 
restored Martinique and Goree without compensa- 
tion, relaxed some of the fishery conditions, but 
secured a wider delimitation of Canadian boundaries. 
In India Pitt had proposed to leave the settlement 
to the French and English companies. 

The peace is one of the great epochs in the growth 
of the British Empire, and the acquisitions under it 
were vast. Carteret, on his death-bed, chanted a 
paean of praise and rejoicing over the glory of his 



1765] The Peace of Paris, 197 

country. Yet the announcement of its terms occa- 
sioned great popular discontent ; the trading classes 
were enraged that the monopolies they anticipated 
were not maintained ; politicians, acquainted with 
the papers in Pitt's negotiation, saw with amaze- 
ment that France came off the better for an extra 
year of defeat. The army and navy knew that the 
conquest of Martinique and the Havannah had cost 
many gallant lives, yet both were restored, and to 
the amazement of all it was found, when news of the 
conquest of Manilla arrived, that no stipulation had 
been made for compensating that conquest, and the 
Philippines were handed back to Spain in exchange 
for a ransom that was never paid. The situation re- 
sembled that after the signing of the treaty of Utrecht ; 
in both cases a glorious war was followed by an un- 
satisfactory peace, but in reality the latter peace was 
more open to criticism, as it was easier for Great 
Britain to maintain colonial acquisitions than to im- 
prove Continental victories, and of more vital impor- 
tance both to her trade and to her maritime power 
that she should retain every such advantage won. 
Choiseul is entitled to the gratitude of his country- 
men for the way he conducted the negotiation; 
Pitt perhaps aimed too high, but Bute, Bedford, and 
the King allowed legitimate advantages to slip 
through their hands, and weakly surrendered much 
which the valour of British forces had won. If Pitt 
had remained in office and had received the support 
of George III. there is little doubt that Cuba and 
the Philippines would have been added to the British 
Empire. Dis aliter visum. 



198 William Pitt. Wl^X- 

Having made his bargain, it was necessary for 
Bute to obtain the approval of the House of Com- 
mons, and the unpopularity of the peace, together 
with the declared disapproval of the most eminent 
Whigs, made it necessary to take strong precautions 
against adverse action by the House. The irony of 
his fate made the former rival of Pitt, Henry Fox, 
the chief instrument in the hands of the King at this 
time. A strong, unscrupulous, and able leader was 
required to face Pitt in the House. George Gren- 
ville was not powerful enough for such an occasion, 
and himself thought the peace inadequate. Fox was 
the only man of sufificient authority ; his will was 
strong, his conscience flexible; he reverenced no 
political principles and never pretended that he did. 
His great ability and power, coupled with the ab- 
sence of all scruple, made him an ideal ruler of the 
House from Bute's point of view. Lord Shelburne 
made his entrance into politics by arranging the 
terms agreed upon between Bute and Fox ; Fox was 
to be leader in the House, to enter the Cabinet, to 
retain his office as Paymaster and after the approval 
of the peace to receive a peerage as his reward. 
George Grenville, displaced from the leadership, 
took the minor office of the First Lord of the Ad- 
miralty. His union with Bute lost Fox his chief 
political friendships, as both Cumberland and Devon- 
shire, two of the most honourable men in politics, 
disapproved the peace and despised Bute. Lord 
Waldegrave, to whom Fox also applied for support, 
declined to have anything to do with the new coali- 
tion. *' Had the peace been instantaneously proposed 




HENRY FOX. 

FROM THE PAINTING BY BENTLEY. 



1765] The Peace of Paris. 199 

to the House of Commons, there is no question but 
it would have been rejected ; so strong a disgust 
was taken at the union of Bute and Fox.'"* Es- 
tranged from the most high-minded of the Whigs, 
Fox threw himself into the service of Bute with great 
ardour, and energetic means were adopted to secure 
support and silence opposition. Money was openly 
given at an office specially reserved for the purpose 
to members of Parliament, votes ranging in value 
from the sum of ;^200 upwards, and the total amount 
expended in this manner reached ^^25,000. Those 
who opposed the new Government were dismissed 
from any offices they held ; the greatest names 
among the Whigs, Devonshire, Newcastle, and Rock- 
ingham, were removed from the list of Lord Lieu- 
tenants, and Devonshire was struck off the Privy 
Council. Fox even desired to remove his opponents 
from places which by their patents were expressly 
granted for life. The proscription included all who 
were related to the rebellious chieftains, and no man 
was too poor to escape deprivation of his place or 
pension if he was known to be dependent on New- 
castle or Devonshire. Fox was very thorough, he 
knew his world, and was confident that fierce per- 
secution, while it made a few martyrs, would cre- 
ate many friends. *' You will have thousands," he 
wrote to Bute,f '' who will think the safety of them- 
selves depends upon your Lordship, and will there- 
fore be sincere and. active friends." The Commons 
rallied to the Court, and the peerage kissed the 

* Walpole's Memoir's of George III., i., 156. 
f Fitzmaurice's Shelburne, i., 180. 



200 Williani Pitt. [I76i- 

rod. Only a small minority remained true to their 
convictions. 

In the midst of this exciting episode Pitt's posi- 
tion was a remarkable one. His attitude towards the 
policy of the King and Bute was not so entirely hos- 
tile as that of the traditional Whigs. He had never 
been averse from the Tories, had mixed with them 
in his Leicester House days, and had received their 
support during his administration. The very fact 
that he was without family connection himself made 
him rather scornful of the little groups into which the 
Whig party was divided, and though a more eloquent 
expounder of the principles of the Revolution never 
spoke in the House of Commons, yet Pitt was never 
absorbed into any coterie of the Whigs. Just as 
Cromwell shook off many tenets of the Parliamentary 
party and outgrew the precision of sectaries, so Pitt 
was too self-reliant to regulate his political conduct 
and conceptions according to the exact standard of 
the Pelhams or Cavendishes. There are men who 
never take part in any revolution, who nevertheless 
may be called revolutionary, men of such fiery spirit 
and conviction that even the love of establislied 
order, and all that is involved in it, would not deter 
them from fierce action in any time of stress. Such 
an one was Pitt, a man whose words, theatrical as 
they seemed at times, always represented the deep- 
est realities to himself, whose love of liberty meant 
that he would have gone with a glad spirit to the 
scaffold, whose patriotism was a burning passion. 
This depth and ardour separated him from the 
Whigs, who were the coldest of politicians, who 



1765] The Peace of Paris. 201 

when they imagined the Constitution in danger were 
satisfied if some man of good family uttered a gen- 
tlemanlike protest in the Commons. Pitt never 
really gave his entire adhesion to the Whig party, 
and that party never trusted him. But if he sym- 
pathised with the King's ideas on the subject of 
party, he was a most determined opponent of the 
system by which Bute was attempting to annihilate 
the influence of Parliament, and meant to arraign 
the peace inflexibly. 

After the dismissal of Devonshire an attempt was 
made to organise a constitutional opposition. New- 
castle and Hardwicke were in close contact with 
the Duke of Cumberland and the latter, who had 
never been blind to Pitt's strength, though he had 
opposed his policy, was now perfectly willing to act 
with the popular leader. Thomas Walpole was sent 
to ascertain Pitt's sentiments, in order that he might 
be persuaded to act in concert with the opposition 
Whigs in Parliament. Many such emissaries were 
dispatched to Pitt in following years, and they 
always found the statesman difficult and perverse 
in negotiation. Pitt would receive such messengers 
in state, enthroned amidst all the majesty of invalid- 
ism, and would deliver an impressive harangue on 
his own pathetic circumstances and the unhappy fate 
of his country, but the conclusion of the whole mat- 
ter remained confused and indefinite. Possibly his 
distrust of party government arose in part from the 
fact that he never possessed any party following of 
his own. To Thomas Walpole his reply was in- 
tensely characteristic. Lately he said he had been 



202 William Pitt. [1761- 

applied to by persons of high rank to concur with 
Bute, with offers much above his deserts. He had 
told them that Lord Bute would not expect him to 
concur in the transcendency of power his Lordship 
had arrived at. On the day of his Majesty's acces- 
sion he had told Lord Bute that his advancement 
would not be for the King's service, and had repeated 
that opinion when Lord Bute came to tell him he 
had received the seals as Secretary of State. Now 
that Lord Bute was arrived at the fulness of power, 
he insulted the nobility, intimidated the gentry, and 
trampled on the people. He would never contribute 
to that yoke Lord Bute was laying on the neck of 
the people. He blamed Devonshire, Newcastle, and 
Hardwicke for their disposition to the peace, and 
passed some strictures on the treaty. 

" Mr. Pitt then returned to the domestic part — ex- 
pressing his apprehension that the distinction of Whig 
and Tory was rising as high as ever ; that he lay under 
great obligations to many gentlemen who had been of the 
denomination of Tories, but who, during his share of 
the administration, had supported the Government upon 
the principles of Whiggism and of the Revolution ; that 
he would die a Whig, and support invariably those prin- 
ciples ; yet he would concur in no prescriptive measures ; 
and though it was necessary Lord Bute should be re- 
moved . . . he might not think it quite for his Maj- 
esty's service to have the Duke of Newcastle secured 
there. , . . With regard to himself, he had felt inex- 
pressible anxieties at holding office against the good- 
will of the Crown ; that he would never put himself in 
that situation, nor accept of any employment whilst his 



1766] The Peace of Paris. 203 

Majesty had that opinion of him which he was ac- 
quainted with." * 

The preliminaries of peace were signed on Novem- 
ber 3d and Parliament met on the 25th. A great 
mob crowded from Charing Cross to Parliament 
Square, and Bute was grossly insulted on his way to 
and from the House of Lords. A noble battle was 
expected between the forces of Bute and the Dukes, 
but the greatest curiosity was felt as to Pitt's con- 
duct. On December 5th, Thomas Hervey wrote to 
Pitt : 

" When I read the preliminaries of our precipitated 
peace, I could not avoid saying what Antony says over 
the corpse of his friend Caesar — Alas, great Pitt ! Are 
all thy conquests, glories, trophies, spoils, shrunk to this 
little measure ? . . . What part you intend to take 
upon this emergency is a point that puzzles our ablest 
politicians. New rumours and surmises are daily set on 
foot and circulated, and they are agreed in nothing, but 
their impatience for the event. You are still beloved 
and reverenced by the patriot band, and still possessed 
of a dignity never conferred on any other man ; that of 
being deemed and even called the People's Minister." f 

Chesterfield anticipated a stormy session, " if Mr. 
Pitt takes an active part ; but if he be pleased, as the 
Ministers say he is, there is no other ^olus to blow 
a storm. The Dukes of Cumberland, Newcastle and 
Devonshire have no better troops to attack with 

* Rockingham Memoirs, i., 149, 150.* " Mr. Pitt affected to be a 
Chief without a party, and the party without him had no other 
Chief." WqX^oIqs, Memoirs George III., \,,\'2^. 

\ Chatham Correspondence, ii., 197, 198. 



204 William Pitt, wi^v 

than the militia; but Pitt alone is ipse agmen^ ^ 
On December 9th both Houses were moved to ex- 
press approbation of the peace. In the Lords, Bute 
and Mansfield made an able defence, and the motion 
was carried without a division, though Hardwicke 
declared that the treaty was ''worse than could have 
been obtained the last year." In the Commons there 
was a crowded attendance, but it was noticed when 
the sitting opened that the great commoner was not 
present. Fox had purchased his majority, but even 
he must have felt some anxiety about the effect of 
that oratory which so many times had dominated 
the representatives of the English people. A mo- 
tion was made by Beckford to refer the preliminaries 
to a Committee of the whole House, evidently with 
the intention of gaining time. While this was being 
discussed, a great shout of applause was heard from 
the lobby. 

"The doors opened, and at the head of a large ac- 
claiming concourse was seen Mr. Pitt, borne in the arms 
of his servants, who, setting him down within the bar, he 
crawled by the help of a crutch, and with the assistance 
of some few friends, to his seat ; not without the sneers 
of some of Fox's party. In truth, there was a mix- 
ture of the very solemn and the theatric in this appari- 
tion. The moment was so well timed, the importance 
of the man and his services, the languor of his emaci- 
ated countenance and the study bestowed on his dress, 
were circumstances that struck solemnity into a patriot 
mind, and did a little furnish ridicule to the hardened 
and insensible. He was dressed in black velvet, his legs 

* Chatham Correspondence, ii., 196. 



1765] The Peace of Paris. 205 

and thighs wrapped m flannel, his feet covered with 
buskins of black cloth, and his hands with thick 
gloves." * 

Pitt's speech was a masterly survey of the various 
questions raised by the treaty, and condemned it 
unstintedly. But it was not one of his greatest 
efforts in oratory, and through his weakness was 
in part delivered sitting. The speech f reveals his 
commercial ideas, which were those of his day. He 
believed in monopoly, and there was no suggestion 
in his mind of modern free-trade ideas. His system 
was a simple one ; he would conquer the territory of 
his commercial rival and rigorously exclude all for- 
eign traders from the trade centres. Thus he said 
that the war had given us possession of the four 
French trades. Newfoundland, the West Indies, 
Africa, and India — such conquests ought to give the 
fisheries, sugar, and slave-trade and the trade of the 
Indies exclusively to Great Britain. The surrender 
of her islands as shelter for French fishermen would 
enable France to recover her marine. " In the ne- 
gotiation he had with M. de Bussy, he had acqui- 
esced in the cession of St. Pierre only ; after having 
several times in vain contended for the whole exclu- 
sive fishery ; but he was overruled, not by the for- 
eign enemy, but by another enemy." He ridiculed 
the idea that Florida was proper compensation for 
the Havannah, the conquest of which, he said, he 
had himself designed. He had been blamed for 

* Walpole's Memoirs of George III., i., 176, 

f The accepted version of the speech is in Almon, marked M. S. 
Horace Walpole gives an account in George III., i., 175 et seq. 



2o6 William Pitt. wi^v 

giving up Guadaloupe, but Martinique also was now 
ceded. '* Why did they permit the forces to conquer 
Martinique if they were resolved to restore it ? '* 
St. Lucia, which was restored to France, was the 
only valuable one of the neutral islands. The fol- 
lowing passage, full of the prevalent theories of the 
mercantile system, states Pitt's theory of colonies 
and commerce : 

" The Ministers seem to have lost sight of the great 
fundamental principle, that France is chiefly, if not sole- 
ly, to be dreaded by us in the light of a maritime and 
commercial power ; and therefore by restoring to her 
all the valuable West Indian islands, and by our conces- 
sions in the Newfoundland fishery, we have given to her 
the means of recovering her prodigious losses, and of 
becoming once more formidable to us at sea. The fish- 
ery trained up an innumerable multitude of young sea- 
men, and the West Indian trade employed them when 
trained. After the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, France 
gained a dreaded superiority over us in this lucrative 
branch of commerce, and supplied almost all Europe 
with the rich commodities which are produced only in 
that part of the world. By this commerce she enriched 
her merchants and augmented her finances. The state of 
the existing trade in the conquests of North America is 
extremely low ; the speculations as to the future trade 
are precarious, and the prospect, at the very best, is low. 
We stand in need of supplies which will have an effect 
certain, speedy and considerable. The retaining both 
or even one of the considerable French islands, Marti- 
nique or Guadaloupe, will, and nothing else can, effect- 
ually answer this triple purpose. The advantage is 
immediate. It is a matter not of conjecture but of 



1766] The Peace of Paris. 207 

account. The trade with these conquests is of the most 
lucrative nature, and of the most considerable extent ; 
the number of ships employed by it are a great resource 
to our maritime power ; and what is of equal weight, all 
that we gain on this system is made four- fold to us by the 
loss which ensues to France.^' 

It it interesting to compare this passage with 
words written by Pitt to Sir Benjamin Keene at the 
beginning of his Ministry, in which he bewails that 
the balance of power is overthrown, and the Barrier 
Treaty no more, which had seemed to English states- 
men, in the days of Louis XIV., the indispensable 
defence against French expansion. Pitt's expres- 
sion of despair was the last echo of that creed. The 
war had as it were changed the scene of the ancient 
rivalry between France and England ; in directing a 
great policy, Pitt had learnt that the balance of 
power in the Old World might be redressed in the 
New, and that the barrier treaties of Europe were 
less important to England than the expanding fron- 
tiers of her own colonial empire. While the com- 
mercial theories of the speech were based on an 
economic ideal that had served its purpose and was 
becoming obsolete, the foundation of its political 
argument was the statement that her colonies, her 
sea-power, and her commerce were the true bases on 
which the greatness of England should be builded, 
the intermingling springs which should feed the 
great stream of her abounding energy and life. 

In another very interesting passage, Pitt dealt 
with the European situation. It had been urged 
that the German war had overturned the balance of 



2o8 William Pitt. wi^v 

power sought for in the reigns of WilHam and Anne. 
Pitt answered that since those days France had de- 
clined so as to be no longer a terror to Europe, and 
that the military power of the Dutch had been ex- 
tinguished. Two great Powers had started up. 
That of Russia *' moves in its own orbit extrinsic- 
ally of all other systems ; but gravitating to each 
according to the mass of attracting interests it con- 
tains '* — a description as true of Russia in the nine- 
teenth as in the eighteenth century. "Another 
Power, against all human expectation, was raised in 
the House of Brandenburg, and the rapid successes 
of his Prussian Majesty prove him to be the natural 
assertor of Germanic liberties against the House of 
Austria" — a prophecy fulfilled on the field of Sad- 
owa. Pitt described the desertion of Prussia as 
insidious, tricking, base, and treacherous. Bute de- 
fended it on the technical ground that Great Brit- 
ain only bound herself to pay the subsidy year by 
year and was not pledged to continue it indefinitely, 
and also argued that as by the death of Elizabeth, 
Russia had become first friendly to Prussia, and on 
the accession of Catherine neutral, the situation was 
altogether changed.^ But the ungenerous character 
of his policy towards an ally who had suffered so 
much could not be concealed, and Frederick never 
trusted Great Britain again. Pitt left the House 
after his speech and was again loudly cheered by the 
crowd in the lobby. When the House divided, 319 
approved the peace and only sixty-five voted in the 

* Bute's defence may be read in his dispatch to Mitchell (May 26, 
1762) : Bisset's Memoirs of Sir Andrew Mitchell {y^^o)^ ii., 294. 




Copyright 



AUGUSTA, PRINCESS OF WALES. 

FROM THE PAINTING BY J. VAN LOO. 



Gibbings & Co. 



1765] The Peace of Paris. 209 

minority. So great was the power of Fox and the 
Treasury. *' The Ministers," wrote Walpole, "or- 
dered that the numbers on the question should be 
printed — had they printed the names too, the world 
would have known the names of the sixty-five that 
were not bribed." " Now," said the Princess Dow- 
ager, " my son is King of England." 

The remainder of the session Avas very stormy, 
owing to the incapacity of Sir Francis Dashwood, 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The main feature 
of his financial measures was the tax on cider, which 
he is said to have adopted because he could not un- 
derstand any of the others that were explained to 
him by the officials. This raised a great outcry in 
the western counties, and was more dangerous to 
the Ministry than the peace itself. Together with 
this a storm of angry feeling was raised against the 
Scots, who were being given pensions and places 
with a lavish hand by Bute. Pitt never counte- 
nanced this ignoble prejudice, and was always ready 
to praise the characteristic virtues of the Scottish 
people. But he joined in the opposition to the Cider 
Bill, and an amusing incident occurred in the House 
during the debate. George Grenville argued that 
the tax was unavoidable. " Where," he asked, 
** can you lay another tax ? Tell me where." And 
he repeated the words '* tell me where " several 
times in his querulous, languid, fatiguing tone. 
Pitt, who sat opposite to him, mimicking his accent 
aloud, repeated these words of an old ditty : "■ Gen- 
tle shepherd, tell me where ! " ^ The name gentle 

* Walpole's Memoirs George III., i., 197, 198. 
14 



i^' 



2IO William Pitt. [i76l- 

shepherd was generally adopted as Grenville's nick- 
name. But the Ministry, which had started the ses- 
sion so strongly, after a few months showed signs of 
weakness. Bute and Fox were on bad terms, and 
Fox never recovered political influence after his 
unscrupulous management of the House over the 
peace. The favourite was shaken by the growing 
popular anger, and believed that if he quitted the 
Government he would withdraw all unpopularity 
from the King. On April 8, 1763, the world was 
amazed by the intelligence that Bute had resigned. 
George Grenville was made First Lord of the Treas- 
ury and leader of the House of Commons, and Lord 
Sandwich, one of the ablest but least reputable of 
the King's devoted followers, became First Lord of 
the Admiralty. Lord Egremont, a leading Tory, 
and Lord Halifax were Secretaries of State. Some 
members of the Bedford party took ofifice, but the 
Duke himself declined the post of President of the 
Council. Fox entered the House of Lords as Lord 
Holland. Fifty-two thousand pounds a year were 
granted in reversions to followers of Bute and Fox. 
Parliament was prorogued on April 19, 1763, and 
the King's speech referred in glowing terms to the 
peace, and stated that the Peace of Hubertsburg be- 
tween Austria and Prussia had been made by the 
mediation of Great Britain. This led to the famous 
No. 45 of the North Briton, a paper conducted by 
J. Wilkes, M. P. for Aylesbury, which had been fa- 
mous for its virulent attacks on Bute and the Scots. 
Wilkes in strong terms condemned what he described 
as the Minister's speech, and characterised the 



1765] The Peace of Pai^is, 2 1 1 



statement or insinuation that the King's negotiation 
had secured the peace between Prussia and her ene- 
mies as an infamous fallacy. " I am in doubt whether 
the imposition is greater on the sovereign or the na- 
tion." The attack on the speech was very strongly 
worded, but it was an attack not on the sovereign 
but on ministers, whose responsibility for the King's 
speech in Parliament had been frequently admitted. 
The ideas of the Court, however, which desired to 
make the King more prominent than his Minister, 
led that party to treat the article as a libel on 
the King himself. It was determined to crush 
Wilkes. A general warrant signed by the Secretary 
of State was issued, ordering the arrest of the au- 
thors, printers, and publishers of the paper, but 
mentioning no names. Under this Wilkes, with 
forty-eight other persons, was arrested and taken 
before Lord Halifax. His conduct illustrated those 
qualities of wit, courage, readiness, and insolence 
which in the following years made him a prince 
among demagogues, the darling of the mob, and the 
astute assertor of all legal privileges. He immedi- 
ately pleaded his privilege against arrest as a mem- 
ber of Parliament and the illegality of a general 
warrant, not mentioning the name of the accused, 
while in the presence of Lord Egremont, he asked 
that he might be confined in that room in the Tower 
which Egremont's father, a Jacobite, had occupied, 
or at least in one in which no Scot had been impris- 
oned, if such an one could be found. Having sought 
out a writ of habeas corpus, he was brought before 
the Court of Common Pleas, and was released on the 



212 William Pitt. [1761- 

ground that privilege of Parliament made illegal the 
arrest of a member, except on charges of treason, 
felony, or breach of the peace, or refusing to give 
surety of the peace. Wilkes followed up this great 
triumph by bringing an action against the Under 
Secretary of State, Wood, and Lord Halifax for 
illegal arrest. Against the former he obtained 
i^iooo damages, while Halifax, by ingenious plead- 
ing, obtained a delay in the action against him. 
Chief Justice Pratt pronounced that warrants to 
seize papers on a charge of libel were illegal, and 
expressed the same opinion in regard to general 
warrants issued by the Secretary of State. The 
King retaliated on Wilkes for these victories by dis- 
missing him from his colonelcy in the Buckingham- 
shire militia. Temple, ordered as Lord Lieutenant 
of the County to inform Wilkes, did so in a letter of 
compliment, and was himself struck off the Privy 
Council and the roll of Lords Lieutenant. 

These events occupied the summer of 1763. 
Grenville had come into office under the auspices of 
Bute, and as he himself said, '' to prevent any un- 
due and unwarrantable force being put upon the 
Crown." ^ His stiff and masterful character soon 
showed the King that he w^ould prove no pliant 
tool in the hands of his sovereign, and though 
George IIL liked the business-like mind of his 
Minister, he did not appreciate a dictatorial style in 
the closet. The death of Lord Egremont in August 
made a vacancy and Bute was ordered to sound 
Pitt. On August 25th Bute saw Pitt, and on the 

* Grenville Papers ^ ii., io6. 



1765] The Peace of Paris, 2 1 



o 



following day the King informed Grenville that he 
intended to call in Pitt, but "to do it as cheap as he 
could." On Saturday Pitt went to the King, and 
told him it would be his interest to restore the 
great Whig families and persons who had been 
driven from his Council and service. His opinion 
was that ''the thing would do." Grenville waited 
for two hours while Pitt was in the closet, and on 
going in found the King a good deal confused and 
flustered. '* From what I collected," he writes, 
** the measure is fully taken." On Sunday, Pitt 
went to see Newcastle at Claremont, and decided to 
write to Devonshire, Hardwicke, and Rockingham.* 
The same day Elliott and Jenkinson, two leaders 
among the King's friends, saw Bute at Kew. '' They 
terrified him so much upon the consequences of the 
step he had persuaded the King to take, that he 
determined to depart from it, and to advise his 
Majesty to send for Mr. Grenville." That evening 
the King, who was " in the greatest agitation," in- 
formed Grenville that Pitt had described the Minis- 
try as a Tory administration, and had insisted upon 
a change all round. He asked if the terms were not 
too hard. On Monday, Pitt went again to see the 
King and had an audience of two hours. The 
sovereign suggested Lord Northumberland, Bute's 
son-in-law, for the Treasury, but Pitt objected to 
this, and also to Lord Halifax. 

" ' Suppose your Majesty should think fit to give Lord 



* His letter to Rockingham states that without Rockingham's sup- 
port "no system can carry its due weight." MSS. of Sarah 
Fitz James, p. 195. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) 



2 14 William Pitt. [1761- 

Halifax the paymaster's place ? ' The King replied, 
' But, Mr. Pitt, I had designed that for poor George 
Grenville ; he is your near relation and you once loved 
him.' To this the only answer was a low bow. And 
now here comes the bait. ' Why,' says his Majesty, 
' should not Lord Temple have the Treasury ? You 
could go on very well then.' ' Sir, the person you shall 
think to favour with the chief conduct of your affairs 
cannot possibly go on without a treasury connected with 
him ; but that alone will do nothing. It cannot go on 
without the great families who have supported the Revo- 
lution government, and other great persons of whose 
abilities and integrity the public have had experience, 
and who have weight and credit in the nation. I should 
only deceive your Majesty, if I should leave you in 
an opinion that I could go on, and your Majesty make 
a solid administration on any other foot.' * Well, Mr. 
Pitt, I see this won't do. My honour is concerned, and 
I must support it.' " * 

After this the King told Grenville that the 
negotiation was over, but on that very day Bute 
made other offers to Pitt, which were rejected. 
Pitt said that he could not tell what changed 
the tone of the King, but it is clear that the 
interview of Elliott and Jenkinson with Bute 
alarmed the favourite, and the alarm spread to the 
sovereign. Lyttleton, writing to Royston, said : 
" My old friend was ever a skilful courtier ; but 
since he himself has attained a kind of royalty, he 
seems more attentive to support his own majesty 

* Hardwicke to Royston, Chatham Correspondence, ii., 211. Gren^ 
•ville Papers, for Grenville's Diary, ii., 195. 



1765] The Peace of Paris. 2 1 5 

than to pay the necessary regard to that of his 
sovereign." That was a very inappropriate criticism 
of Pitt's conduct towards George III., to whom he 
behaved with an excess of deference. It was Pitt's 
loyalty to the Whig famihes, and his determination 
to take office only with their concurrence, that ex- 
cluded him from office. In judgments passed, by 
Burke among others, on Pitt's relations with the 
traditional Whigs, his conduct on this occasion is 
overlooked. 

Having failed to detach Pitt from the Whigs, the 
King regarded Grenville as his one resource, and he 
attempted to strengthen the administration by tak- 
ing in the Bedfords. Bedford when first approached 
advised the King to send for Pitt, being ignorant of 
the negotiation just ended, but the King informed 
Bedford that Pitt had stipulated for his exclusion. 
This was an exaggeration of what Pitt had said,* 
but it enraged the Duke, who at once agreed to join 
Grenville. Shelburne, who had arranged the earlier 
negotiation for Bute, resigned his office, and from 
this time was the steady ally of Pitt. He wrote to 
Pitt felicitating him on a negotiation being at an 
end "which carried through the whole of it such 
shocking marks of insincerity." Bedford became 
President of the Council ; Sandwich, Secretary of 
State; Hillsborough, President of the Board of 
Trade, and Egremont, first Lord of the Admiralty. 
This proved to be the strongest of the earlier 
Ministries under George III., and one of the most 
important. 

♦See letters of Wood to Pitt, Chatham Corr., ii., 246-252. 



2i6 William Pitt. [1761- 

When Parliament met the first question raised was 
that of Wilkes. Grenville moved that No. 45 was 
a false, scandalous, and seditious libel, tending to ex- 
cite the people to traitorous insurrections. Pitt 
agreed in condemning the libel but objected to the 
words " tending to excite the people to traitorous 
insurrections." The motion was carried and then 
Wilkes raised the question of his Parliamentary- 
privilege, which was adjourned. The following day 
he fought a duel with Martin and was severely 
wounded. The matter of privilege came before the 
House on November 23d, when a motion was made 
" That the privilege of Parliament does not extend to 
the case of writing and publishing seditious libels, nor 
ought it to be allowed to obstruct the ordinary course 
of the laws in the speedy and effectual prosecution 
of so heinous and dangerous an offence." In prin- 
ciple this resolution was excellent, as there was 
danger in the formidable array of privileges which 
the House had from time to time demanded, but it 
could not be argued that the House had ever before 
made so considerable a diminution from the cher- 
ished safeguards of members. It was obviously 
proposed, in order to meet the circumstances of the 
particular cause, to render null and void the defences 
which Wilkes had pleaded, and was a vindictive 
motion. Pitt, though very ill, came down to the 
House on crutches, and opposed the surrender of 
privilege. He argued that the privilege in question 
had never been abused, and that it was always in 
the power of Parliament to give up a member, if 
complaint was made of him. Parliament had no 



1765] The Peace of Paris, 2 1 7 

right to vote away its privileges, which were the in- 
herent right of succeeding members, as well as of 
the present. He had joined in condemning the 
libel, but the rest belonged to the courts of justice. 

" He condemned the whole series of North Britons ; 
called them illiberal, unmanly, unjust. He abhorred all 
national reflections. The King's subjects were one peo- 
ple. Whoever divided them was guilty of sedition. His 
Majesty's complaint was well-founded, it was just, it was 
necessary. The author did not deserve to be ranked 
among the human species — he was the blasphemer of 
his God, and the libeller of his King." 

It would have been well if George III. had been 
content with this generous denunciation, which 
showed clearly enough that Pitt shared neither the 
enthusiasm of the mob for Wilkes, nor its prejudice 
against the Scots. But the political world was eager 
for the punishment of the King's critic, and Wilkes 
was expelled from the House, while in the Lords, 
Sandwich,* appearing for the first time as guardian 
of morals, brought to the notice of that House an 
unpublished parody by Wilkes called the Essay on 
Woman, and an address was voted to the King ask- 
ing that Wilkes might be prosecuted. After Wilkes 
had escaped to Paris, he was ordered into custody. 
For some years the patriot was content in exile, 

* Sandwich was notoriously profligate and immoral, and had been 
the associate of Wilkes in the orgies at Medmenham Abbey. The 
Beggars' Opera being performed at Convent Garden soon after this 
event, the whole audience, when Marshall says " That Jemmy 
Twitcher should teach me, I own surprises me," burst out into an 
applause of application ; and the nickname of Jemmy Twitcher 
stuck by the Earl so as almost to occasion the disuse of his title. 



2i8 William Pitt. [1761- 

living on the bounty of Lord Temple, and an an- 
nuity of ;^iooo contributed by the Whigs. 

The debates arising out of Sir W. Meredith's 
motion condemning general warrants as illegal were 
very stormy, and threatened to overturn the Minis- 
try. Their majority fell to ten on one division. 
" Pitt," writes Horace Walpole, *' broke out on lib- 
erty, and, indeed, on whatever he pleased, uninter- 
rupted. Rigby sat feeling the vice-treasurership 
slipping from under him. Nugent was not less pen- 
sive. Everybody was too much taken up with his 
own concerns, or too much daunted, to give the 
least disturbance to the Pindaric." Only one of his 
many speeches is reported. He admitted he had 
himself issued general warrants, but he knew they 
were illegal, and that if he issued them he' must risk 
the consequences. Both cases occurred during the 
French war. " The real exigency of the case, of 
the time, and the apparent necessity of the King, 
would always justify a Secretary of State in every 
astounding act of power." But in the case of Wilkes 
there was no necessity for such action; the parties 
were known. 

" What was there in the crime of libel so heinous and 
terrible, as to require this formidable instrument, which, 
like an inundation of water, bore down all the barriers 
and fences of happiness and security ? Parliament had 
voted away its own privilege, and laid the personal free- 
dom of every representative of the nation at the mercy 
of the Attorney General." 

The issue of the moment was the indulgence of a 
personal resentment against a particular person. '* If 



1765] The Stamp Act, 219 

the House negatived the motion, they would be the 
disgrace of the present age and the reproach of pos- 
terity ; who, after sacrificing their own privileges, had 
abandoned the liberty of the subject, upon a pre- 
tence that was wilfully founded in error, and mani- 
festly urged for the purpose of delusion." 

Before the session closed George Grenville brought 
forward the motion which has given to his name an 
unhappy prominence in history. In March, 1764, 
he carried a motion declaring that *' for further de- 
fraying the expense of protecting the colonies it 
may be proper to charge certain stamp duties in the 
said colonies." This resolution, of so momentous 
import, attracted little attention in England at the 
time, but it was the basis of a carefully considered 
policy. 

The detailed history of the American Revolution 
has been written many times; there are many points 
of view from which it may be studied. Religious, 
economic, political influences which had long been in 
operation combined to produce a new State ; the 
foundation of that State is the most remarkable ex- 
ample in history of the practical political reason in 
operation, and the origins of modern democracy are 
more clearly written in the deliberate and scientific 
consultations of the American founders than in the 
storm and tumult of the French Revolution. The 
basis of custom and usage was broken up, and gov- 
ernment became an affair of reason and speculation. 
But it is as an event in the history of the British Em- 
pire, an event which seemed to close the chapter of 
colonial power at the moment when that power had 



2 20 William Pitt. [1761- 

reached its highest pitch, that the biographer of Pitt 
must regard the great democratic movement. The 
energies of Pitt's later hfe were chiefly devoted to the 
struggle in England which followed American events, 
and to his mind at least there was a parallel between 
the resistance of the Americans and the opposition 
in England to the revival of an arbitrary prerogative. 
While it cannot be argued that Pitt's political ideas 
were broad enough completely to comprehend the 
American case, or that he was in sympathy with the 
aspirations that were gradually enlarged by the con- 
tinued struggle, it is yet true that no man in England 
saw so clearly as he the larger issues of the movement, 
or sympathised so intensely with the essential spirit 
of resistance. His patriotism was not insular, but 
imperial, and the colonial was as truly a fellow-sub- 
ject as the Englishman at home. He had grasped 
the moral of the Revolution before the disaster which 
was necessary to impress it for ever upon the British 
nation. 

The system on which the American colonies were 
governed was one of political liberty and commercial 
restriction. There were three classes of colony, the 
royal, the proprietary, and the charter colony ; each 
of these classes possessed a distinctive constitution, 
but all three types approximated closely to the gen- 
eral model of the British Parliamentary monarchy. 
In the royal colonies, Virginia, the Carolinas, New 
York, New Jersey, and New Hampshire, the gover- 
nor and his council, which was part of the executive 
power as well as second chamber of the legislative, 
were appointed by the Crown, and the Assembly was 



1765] The Stamp Act. 221 

elected by the freeholders of the province. The 
governor and the Crown both possessed a veto on all 
acts, judges were appointed by the governor and 
held office during the royal pleasure, while an appeal 
lay to the King in Council from the local courts. 
The only proprietary governments were Pennsylva- 
nia, Maryland, and Delaware ; in these the Crown 
had little influence, as the proprietors conjointly with 
the Crown appointed governor and council, and en- 
acted laws with the advice of the elected Assemblies. 
In Maryland the Crown could not invalidate the 
laws unless they were repugnant to those of Eng- 
land, and a perpetual export duty on tobacco pro- 
vided sufficient revenue without grants from the 
Assembly. In Pennsylvania the Assembly enjoyed 
greater power, as the governor and judges were de- 
pendent upon it for their annual support. It was in 
Massachusetts that the most democratic constitution 
obtained ; by the charter granted in 1691 the gover- 
nor was appointed by the Crown, but the Assembly, 
which met each year, elected the twenty-eight mem- 
bers of the council, though the governor could veto 
any name ; laws made by the General Court, consist- 
ing of the Assembly and council, were subject to 
the governor's veto and might be disallowed by the 
King within three years of their enactment. The 
governor and council appointed judges, and the As- 
sembly voted all supplies. Town matters were gov- 
erned by town meetings of all freemen within the 
parish, which were an important and most influen- 
tial institution ; " all New England was an aggregate 
of organised democracies." Connecticut and Rhode 



222 William Pitt, [1761- 

Island were even more democratic in organisation, 
though not in spirit, than Massachusetts, and these 
northern colonies were the mainstay of the Revolu- 
tion. Such had been the general political system 
for the greater part of American history ; its working 
displayed the dangerous weakness of the executive 
power, and the ability of the Assemblies not to gov- 
ern, but to paralyse government. The governor 
was responsible to the Crown and dependent on the 
Assembly ; because he was not the man of their own 
choice, and not responsible to them, his every act 
was scrutinised with a greater jealousy by the elected 
representatives who controlled the purse. The 
claim to vote supplies led to the larger claim to ap- 
propriate supplies, exactly as it had done in English 
Parliamentary history ; if the colonial Assembly, like 
the English Parliament, could have delegated its su- 
preme control to a ministerial executive, a firmly ad- 
justed constitution might have been secured. But 
that meant that the executive would be not the ser- 
vant of the Crown, but the choice of the colony: it 
meant that the Assembly, in the words of Governor 
Pownall, would assume " the actual executive part 
of the Government, than which nothing is more 
clearly and unquestionably settled in the Crown." * 
A representative body that controls the public reve- 
nue is certain to absorb sovereign power; but when 
the charters of the colonists granted to the Ameri- 
can this familiar English safeguard, such a conse- 
quence was not understood or intended, and as a 
result there were constant quarrels between the 

'^Administration of the Colonies. 



17651 The Stamp Act. 223 

executive, which represented the English idea of co- 
lonial subordination, and the Assembly, which 
represented the actual fact of colonial self-govern- 
ment. This was particularly the case in Massachu- 
setts, where many disputes with a succession of 
governors and many victories won by the withhold- 
ing of money had pointed and emphasised the es- 
sential importance of representative control over the 
public revenue. When that position was threatened 
every man in New England saw the value of the is- 
sue as clearly as Hampden had seen it in that his- 
toric struggle out of which New England itself had 
sprung. 

In commercial affairs and questions of general 
policy the colonies were subordinate to the Crown 
and to the Parliament of Great Britain, which was 
recognised as the superintending body. The Eng- 
lish common law and statutes which mentioned the 
plantations were everywhere recognised as binding, 
and any colonial law repugnant to such statutes was 
null and void."^ Matters affecting the colonies gen- 
erally, such as the law of naturalisation, the currency, 
the postal system, were expressly regulated by Par- 
liament, and appeals were made to the Crown for 
protection against religious or class oppression. It 
was, however, in the laws of trade that Parliamentary 
control made itself felt. The commercial system 
was that which had commended itself to the states- 
men of every European country that possessed 
plantations, a system founded on monopoly, prohib- 
itive tariffs, bounties, and all those devices of pro- 

* 7 and 8 Will. III., c. 22. 



2 24 William Pitt. [1761- 

tectionism which the enHghtened intelligence of the 
nineteenth century regards with disdain. In its 
main object the systena, which aimed at power, was 
completely successful; it was adopted in order to 
encourage the shipping trade of England, and with- 
out doubt that object was achieved largely as a re- 
sult of its provisions. By his Navigation Ordinance 
of 165 1 Cromwell decieed that no goods should be 
exported from or imported into England except in 
English or colonial built ships, which must belong 
to English owners and be manned by a crew three 
quarters English. By the Act of 1660 this was re- 
asserted, and it was further ordained that certain 
enumerated articles should not be exported from 
any colony to any country except Great Britain or 
another British colony; and in 1664 and 1672 it was 
further enacted that European goods must be 
landed in Great Britain before being shipped to the 
colonies, and that goods exported from one colony 
to another should be liable to the same duty as if 
exported to England. So far as the compulsory 
use of English ships was concerned the colonists 
were on a level with Englishmen, and found no great 
reason to complain ; they were amply compensated 
by the resulting strength of the English navy, which 
protected their commerce and had delivered them 
from French rivalry. The other side of the com- 
mercial policy in some respects hazarded their in- 
terests; so far as the enumerated articles were 
concerned they were rigidly confined to the British 
market, but some of their most important produc- 
tions, such as grain, lumber, salted provisions, fish, 



1765] The Stamp Act, 225 

sugar, and rum, were not enumerated, and these 
might be exported directly to other colonies. '' If 
the whole surplus produce of America had been put 
into the enumeration, and thereby forced into the 
market of Great Britain, it would have interfered 
too much with the produce of the industry of our 
own people," writes Adam Smith. A great market 
was secured for certain American goods, such as 
sugar, tobacco, unwrought iron, by their exemption 
from part of the duty levied on the same goods from 
foreign countries, and a system of drawbacks remit- 
ting part of the export duties on foreign goods 
shipped to England in transit for America made 
some articles actually cheaper in the colonies than 
in England. On the other hand, while bounties 
were given on English necessaries, such as naval 
stores sent to the mother country, any manufacture 
or trade that would compete with an English indus- 
try was suppressed by law. Thus, to take a remark- 
able instance quoted by Bancroft, the Bible was not 
allowed to be printed by any colonial press. The 
most important of the commercial restrictions in its 
immediate effects was the prohibitive duty on the 
importation into New England of molasses from the 
French West Indian islands. New England found 
a market for its timber in these islands, and the 
French needed a market for their molasses, which 
were excluded from France, while New England's 
great export was rum. The duty was systematically 
evaded, with the tacit consent of the customs offi- 
cers. A great illicit trade sprang up in this connec- 
tion, and even during the war, greatly to Pitt's 

«5 



2 26 William Pitt. W6\- 

indignation,^ the trading zeal of the colonists led 
them to export commodities to the French. This 
contraband trade attracted the attention of Gren- 
ville ; the attempt to suppress it displayed to the 
colonists the disadvantages of the mercantile 
system. 

The great critic of this system, Adam Smith, in 
summing up his considerations upon it, remarks that 
Great Britain treated the colonists with greater lib- 
erality than any foreign Power, but astutely adds 
that this did not arise altogether from disinterested- 
ness. *' To found a great empire for the sole pur- 
pose of raising up a people of customers, may at first 
sight appear a project fit for a nation of shop- 
keepers." The traders of England wished that 
" the cultivators of America might be confined to 
their shop : first for buying all the goods which they 
wanted for Europe ; secondly, for selling all such 
parts of their own produce as such traders might 
find it convenient to buy — for they did not find it 
convenient to buy every part of it. Some parts of it 
imported into England might have interfered with 
some of the trades which they themselves carried on 
at home. Those particular parts of it, therefore, 
they were willing that the colonists should sell 
where they could, the further ofif the better ; and 
upon that account proposed that their market 
should be confined to the countries south of Cape 
Finisterre. A clause in the famous Act of Naviga- 
tion established this truly shopkeeper proposal into 

*See his " Letter to Governors of America," Thackeray's Life of 
Chatham, ii., 475. 



1765] The Stmnp Act. 227 

a law. The maintenance of this monopoly has 
hitherto been the principal, or more properly per- 
haps the sole, end and purpose of the dominion 
which Great Britain assumes over the colonies. . . . 
The monopoly is the sole badge of their depen- 
dency, and it is the sole fruit which has hitherto 
been gathered from that dependency." These 
words exhibit the spirit of that colonial system 
which was tried and found wanting in the early 
years of George III. ; they contain also a warning 
that is eternally applicable to those who are mem- 
bers of a great commercial empire. 

The policy with which Grenville was identified, 
but which was undoubtedly not originated by him, 
was no opportunist scheme hastily adopted, but the 
logical outcome of the ideas on which the old colo- 
nial system was based. He had inherited the vast 
debt increased to more than one hundred and fifty 
millions by the late war ; the bent of his mind was 
towards economy and urgent considerations com- 
pelled him to seek fresh sources of income ; he had 
inherited also the duty of securing the defence of 
Canada against all possible attacks, and of guarding 
the civilisation of America from the peril of Indian 
v/arfare. Examining the revenue from American 
customs he found that a receipt varying between 
one and two thousand pounds cost from seven to 
eight thousand to collect, while his consideration of 
the problem of American defence led him to con- 
clude that an army of twenty thousand men must 
be maintained in the colonies. This was as large a 
force as had been maintained in Great Britain on the 



2 28 William Pitt. [1761- 

peace establishment, and its cost amounted to a con- 
siderable sum. The policy he adopted was rigidly 
to enforce the trade laws, to establish an army of 
twenty thousand in America, and to raise an Amer- 
ican revenue by means of stamps affixed to all legal 
documents, which should be spent entirely in sup- 
port of the army in America. So far as the first 
two articles were concerned Grenville was only exe- 
cuting the ideas of his generation, though the 
methods he adopted bore the impress of his narrow 
and somewhat pedantic mind, and of that strain of 
tyranny which was part of his character. In enforc- 
ing the trade laws he was in reality aiming a severe 
blow at American prosperity, especially in New Eng- 
land, and a wise statesman would have been specially 
careful to adopt means as little irritating as possible ; 
Grenville, however, when once satisfied that his pur- 
pose was a righteous one paid little attention to 
method. He enlarged the jurisdiction of the Ad- 
miralty Courts, which sat without a jury, though 
trial by jury was universal in the colonies ; he gave 
to revenue officers a general power of search by writs 
of assistance, which were analogous to the general 
warrants of England, and he transformed the naval 
officers stationed on the American coast into revenue 
officials, administering to them the customs house 
oath, and encouraging their assiduity by the pros- 
pect of large rewards for the discovery of smuggling. 
It is clear that measures such as these bore all the 
appearance of tyranny. 

The first note of resistance was heard in the speech 
of Otis, in February, 1761, against the practice of 



1765] The Stamp Act. 229 

issuing writs of assistance to the customs officers. 
The writs were clearly legal, but it is worth noting 
that Otis, and that other lawyer patriot Henry, who 
had such a great influence over popular opinion, 
never hesitated to lay greater stress on the broad 
moral aspect of their cases than on any technical 
legal ground. Otis, for example, in his speech against 
the writs of assistance stood upon the maxim, " No 
Act of Parliament can establish such a writ ; even 
though made in the very language of the petition, it 
would be a nullity. . . . An Act of Parlia- 
ment against the constitution is void." He appealed 
to universal principles, founded in truth, and said 
that the writs, though based on statutes, were con- 
trary to '' reason." Those words are said to have 
produced a lasting impression, but the argument is 
one which no law court could accept, seeing that it 
is addressed not to the interpretation but to the 
moral character of the statutes concerned.* It is a 
salient characteristic of the manner in which the 
policy of Grenville was approached by the Ameri- 
cans that they regarded the technical aspect as sub- 
ordinate, and went directly to the root principles of 
government involved. 

While there is no doubt that the strict enforce- 
ment of the trade laws was more damaging to the 
monetary interests of the Americans, it was the 
novel plan of Grenville embodied in the Stamp Act 



* Adams said Otis was Isaiah and Ezekiel in one. " Then and 
there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary 
claims of Great Britain." Tyler, Literary History of the American 
Revolution^ i., 36. 



230 William Pitt. [1761- 

that first moved the colonists to united resistance. 
In regard to this measure the Minister showed con- 
siderable anxiety to consult the wishes of the col- 
onists, and he gave them a year in which to consider 
its details, or to suggest some other method of rais- 
ing the money. He met the agents of the colonies, 
and expressed his desire if possible to act in accord- 
ance with their wishes, but he never wavered as to 
the necessity of a contribution from America, or as 
to the right of the Imperial Parliament to levy a tax. 
When Franklin suggested that the old method of a 
requisition upon the Assemblies through the govern- 
ors had answered well in the past, Grenville asked 
him whether the colonies could agree on the respec- 
tive proportions they should contribute. Franklin 
was too familiar with the constant disputes between 
the colonies on this very matter to answer that they 
could, but it is none the less a remarkable fact that 
Grenville should not even have tested this method 
of raising the revenue, which he intended to devote 
entirely to American objects. In introducing the reso- 
lution (February 6, 1765) he argued that the colonies 
had a right to protection, that protection meant an 
army, and that it was reasonable for the colonies to 
raise one-third of the amount required for this army. 
He estimated that the Stamp Act would produce 
;^ 100,000. The debt of Great Britain was one hun- 
dred and fifty millions, that of the colonies eight 
hundred thousand, while the cost of their govern- 
ment was only seventy-five thousand a year. The 
remonstrances of the Americans, he asserted, failed in 
the great point of the colonies not being represented 



1765] The Stamp Act, 231 

in Parliament, which was the great council of the 
Empire, and as capable of imposing internal taxes as 
navigation laws. Their charters could not override 
Parliament ; it was not within the prerogative to 
emancipate English subjects from the dominion 
of Parliament. 

The Commons were impressed by these argu- 
ments, knowing as they did the heavy burden of 
taxation in Great Britain. The only opposition 
came from Conway and from Barre, the latter of 
whom, in his " Sons of Liberty " speech, realised 
very acutely the spirit in which the Americans re- 
sisted the act. There was force in the contention 
that the colonists had profited greatly by the war, 
and ought to share in the expenses it entailed, al- 
though that contention was exaggerated when it was 
urged that the war had been undertaken entirely on 
behalf of the colonies. The war had been far more 
a British than an American concern, and British 
statesmen would never have undertaken such an en- 
terprise simply on account of colonial interests ; in 
previous policy, at the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle for 
example, colonial interests were strictly subordina- 
ted to those of the mother country. Pitt's speech 
on the peace clearly showed that the war had opened 
up the prospect of great mercantile advantages. 
Moreover, the colonies had themselves rendered 
great services. They had put twenty thousand men 
into the field, and were by no means recouped for 
their outlay in money by the sums granted them 
from the British exchequer. Pennsylvania, accord- 
ing to FrankHn, spent half a million and received 



232 William Pitt. [1761- 

back only sixty thousand pounds.* He asserted 
also that the colonists could not pay the stamp duty 
for want of gold and silver, and the Pennsylvanians 
were obliged to tax themselves heavily. Yet he said 
they would willingly give money for the objects of 
the act if they were asked to make a free grant. 
But Grenville was wedded to the principle of Parlia- 
mentary taxation, which was more to him even than 
the increase of revenue, as is shown by his curious 
offer of bounties as offsets against the new tax. 
" If one bounty will not do, I will add two, if two 
will not do, I will add three." f This offer breaks 
down the logic of his plan, and deprives him of that 
reputation for economy which was his chief pride. 
Bounties given on so lavish a scale would soon 
diminish the hundred thousand pounds, which was 
the anticipated market value of the Stamp Act ; 
and while bounties could only satisfy those con- 
cerned in particular trades, the new duty affected 
the whole population, so that there would have been 
constant demands for more bounties. Dr. Johnson, 
deprecating too low an estimate of Grenville's na- 
ture, said that if he could have obtained payment of 
the Manilla ransom from Spain he would have been 
able to count it. Possibly the Minister realised that 
the experiment of bribing the colonists to pay a 
small tax would not prove a lucrative one for the 
national finances, but he had pledged his word, his 
obstinate nature was committed to that view of the 



* Examination before the House of Commons. Works (Jared 
Sparks) iv., i6i, 198. 

\ Cavendish Debates/!.^ 404. 



1765J 



The Stamp Act. 233 



question, as one of '' obedience to the laws, and re- 
spect for the legislative authority of the kingdom," 
which was expressed in the King's speech of 1765. 
Whether or not the Treasury was to be enriched, he 
had pitted the Parhament of Great Britain against 
those Assemblies which were her children. 

For twelve months after the struggle over Wilkes, 
Pitt was almost retired from political life. He re- 
ceived two legacies during the year, one of ;^iooo 
from Mr. Allen of Bath, and another one from Sir 
William Pynsent, who bequeathed an estate in Som- 
ersetshire of nearly ;^3000 a year, which offered him 
enough land for his favourite pleasure of landscape 
gardening. The death of the Duke of Devonshire 
and the great age of Newcastle made Lord Rock- 
ingham leader of the Whigs. Pitt, in October, 1764, 
wrote a kind of manifesto to Newcastle in which he 
declared that *' he would not quit the free condition 
of a man standing single, and daring to appeal to his 
country at large, upon the soundness of his princi- 
ples and the rectitude of his conduct." Notwith- 
standing this declaration the Whigs still looked to 
Pitt as one who would consolidate a Ministry of 
their own connection. The Duke of Grafton writes 
in his journal, ''The Opposition had so little expec- 
tation of being called to take a part in Administra- 
tion, unless by the recommendation of Mr. Pitt, that 
even when the coldness between the King and his 
servants was apparent to all mankind, to act under 
Mr. Pitt became the general voice, and was our prin- 
cipal wish."* The spring of 1765, when this was 



* Anson's Grafton, p. 32. 



234 William Pitt. [1761- 

written by Grafton, again brought political dissen- 
sions, the occasion being the first illness of George 
III. This necessitated a Regency Bill ; Grenville 
and Bedford were by this time bitterly hostile to 
anything that savoured of Bute's influence, and they 
extracted from the King an agreement that the 
name of his mother, the Princess Dowager, should 
be excluded from the Council of Regency. By an 
amendment carried against Grenville by the Tories 
and King's friends, it was decided to insert the 
name. The incident caused the greatest pain to the 
King and abruptly ended all relations of confidence 
with his Ministers. He turned to the Duke of Cum- 
berland, whom he had frequently slighted, and be- 
sought him to find a Ministry. The Duke began 
negotiations in May, 1765. 

Pitt was interviewed by Lord Albemarle and by 
Cumberland himself, and subject to certain stipula- 
tions as to policy, the most important of which were 
the establishment of a counter-system to the House 
of Bourbon, the restoration of officers who had been 
dismissed for their votes in Parliament, and prefer- 
ment in the services on merit, he was personally will- 
ing to serve. Temple, however, made objections. 
Grenville and Bedford, finding that the negotiation 
was unsuccessful, determined to read the King a les- 
son and punish the adherents of Bute. Their be- 
haviour to the King was hectoring, dictatorial, and 
discourteous. Another attempt was made by the 
King to engage Pitt and he declared he was ready 
to go to St. Janes's ** if he might carry the Constitu- 
tion with him." In his interview with the King Pitt 




'\/'W- 



ARL TEMPLE . 



17651 The Stamp Act. 235 

condemned the Stamp Act.* But again Temple 
stepped in, and declined the Treasury. Pitt reluct- 
antly gave up the idea of returning to office and 
quoted to Temple 

**Exstinxti me teque, soror, populumque patresque 
Sidonios, urbemque tuam." 

It is difficult to divine Temple's reasons for this 
perverse conduct, which deprived England of a Min- 
istry that might have avoided the great disaster 
impending ; probably his recent reconciliation with 
George Grenville was the origin of a foolish ambi- 
tion he cherished of making with his brother and 
Pitt a triumvirate that should govern the Empire. 
There can be no doubt that Pitt was anxious to take 
office. Cumberland wrote to Albemarle : '' I found 
the King already entrenching himself behind Pitt's 
promises of mercy in so many particulars. By what 
I can pick up, Pitt is completely mortified, and I am 
heartily sorry for it, as he had entered more sincere- 
ly into the King's service, nay, and went further 
almost than the King's views." f Probably Temple 
desired to inflict condign punishment on the entire 
party of Bute. He described the plan of the pro- 
posed administration as Butal Ducal. 

The King at length found deliverance from Gren- 
ville by taking in the Whigs ; Lord Rockingham 
took the Treasury ; Conway was leader of the Com- 
mons, and Secretary of State with the Duke of 

* Grenville Papers, iii., 203. 

\ Rockingham Memoirs, i., 213, 241. See also Cumberland's re- 
port on the negotiations, ibid,, i., 185-203, and Grenville Papers, iii., 
61. 



236 William Pitt. [1761-1765] 

Grafton as colleague, Dowdeswell Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, and the old Duke of Newcastle Privy- 
Seal. Chesterfield described the new Ministry as an 
arch of which Pitt was the key-stone. Lyttleton 
wrote to his brother : 

" Mr. Pitt is convinced that if Lord Temple had ac- 
cepted, the Ministry formed by and under them would 
have had nothing to fear from Lord Bute ; that the King 
relished the measures, both foreign and domestic, which 
he had prepared ; and that he can never hereafter come 
in so agreeably to himself or so usefully to the publick, 
the time being critical with respect to foreign affairs. 
Nor do I think he will ever co-operate with Lord Tem- 
ple in any measure of opposition taken by his Lordship, 
in conjunction with his brother and the Duke of Bed- 
ford, or accede to them as a Ministry, though he is 
reconciled to George Grenville as a relation. 
The desire of Mr. Pitt in the publick is inexpressibly 
strong, and nothing will satisfy them without him. I 
believe he is also much desired in the Court." * 

Temple, on the other hand, plainly declared his 
own disapproval of the new Government, and in- 
timated that Pitt shared his feeling. *' Mr. Pitt 
neither had, nor would have, any the least share 
in the formation of it, as it now stands; he is 
retired into Somersetshire, and has not, I dare 
say, any the smallest communication with them "f 
(September 5, 1765). Charles Townshend said it was 
a lute-string administration, fit only for summer wear. 



*V\)JX\!\xivox€% Lyiileton, July 25, 1765. 
\ Grenville Papers, iii., 85. 



CHAPTER VI. 



REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 



1766. 



THE Rockingham party will be always memor- 
able because its leader was the patron of Ed- 
mund Burke, the most profoundly influential 
of English political thinkers, who, in 1765, at the 
age of thirty-six, was returned to Parliament as 
member for Wendover. Dr. Johnson declared that 
he had only known two men who had risen very con- 
siderably above the common level, Lord Chatham 
and Edmund Burke. Although Burke was a poor 
man and unconnected, from the first his influence 
over the passive and unoriginal intellect of Rock- 
ingham was commanding and decisive. How far 
Burke's ideas on the subject of party were coloured 
by the special circumstances of the Rockingham 
connection, or how far the policy of the party was 
the fruit of Burke's ideas, it is not easy to say. But 
Burke was their great protagonist and originator ; 
his eloquence and fame have shed glory upon their 
commonplace personalities. The antagonism be- 
tween Pitt and this section of the Whigs, which was 

237 



238 William Pitt. li766 

never wholly subdued, was the result mainly of Pitt's 
idiosyncrasies, but it was stimulated and embittered 
from the other side by Burke's dislike for Pitt, by 
his distrust of Pitt's popular tendencies, his preju- 
dice against a man who would not bow the knee to 
the prevailing deity of the Whigs, but acted with 
confidence in himself and an arrogant disregard of 
great connections. Burke's belief in party govern- 
ment has been substantiated by the history of poli- 
tics since the great democratic revolution which 
Burke feared so greatly, but in the eighteenth cen- 
tury it was only dimly realised. Rockingham was 
a typical Whig, and his small party represented all 
that remained of the great majority which New- 
castle had consolidated and Pitt had borrowed. 
They had passed unscathed through the hard ordeal 
of Fox's systematic corruption, and deserved the 
highest credit for their resistance to that Minister. 
They still preserved the old Whig faith in govern- 
ment by the House of Commons, though they never 
had a majority of their own. The great principles 
of uniform policy in the Council, and uniform action 
under one leader, which Burke ascribed to them in 
later years, may have reposed in the bosom of Rock- 
ingham, but they were from the first disregarded by 
his colleagues. The new Premier was a man of good 
sense and genuine character, but he was lacking in 
experience and in training; destitute of all greater 
qualifications for statesmanship, with no superior 
knowledge and no remarkable strength of will, he 
failed to impress Parliament, or his colleagues, or the 
nation, with any belief in his value, any desire for 




LORD ROCKINGHAM. 

FROM THE PAINTING BY B. WILSON. 



1766] Repeal of the Stamp Act. 239 

his return. He owed his position to his great ter- 
ritorial possessions, and up to the time when he be- 
came Premier had held no responsible office of 
state, though as Lord Lieutenant he had been dis- 
tinguished by dismissal, at the same time as Devon- 
shire and Newcastle. It was only after long 
resistance that he yielded to the pressure of his 
friends and took the Treasury. It is difficult to 
share in the enthusiasm of Burke for this blameless 
but uninspiring chief, and the regard of his contem- 
poraries never passed beyond the esteem which is 
felt for all those who do their duty in that station to 
which it has pleased God to call them. 

Rockingham's chief colleagues were Conway and 
Grafton. Conway had served with distinction, and 
very conspicuous bravery, under Prince Ferdinand. 
Horace Walpole cherished for him a warm and con- 
stant affection, and has portrayed his character in 
the most attractive light. His speeches were ready 
and graceful, delivered with much charm of manner, 
and spiced with considerable wit ; his honesty was 
undoubted, his incorruptibility proverbial, his inten- 
tions excellent. But of initiative in political action 
he had none, and too often, even in the pages of his 
admirer, he presents the confusing spectacle of a 
politician not knowing his own mind. An admirable 
lieutenant, he needed a leader. The other Secretary 
of State was the Duke of Grafton, who at this time 
was barely thirty years of age. Like the Duke of 
Richmond and Fox, he was descended from Charles 
II. Plis estate, inherited at an early age, combined 
with unusual ability, made him prominent long 



240 William. Pitt. 11766 

before his character was matured, but he was never 
anxious for ofifice, and preferred fox-hunting to 
pohtics. He was an accomplished speaker and in 
easier times might have made a successful Minister. 
He warmly admired the character of Pitt, who had 
noticed him when a boy at Eton, and Pitt appreci- 
ated the admiration and friendship of the young 
Duke. From the moment of accepting ofifice 
Grafton made no secret of his preference for Pitt. 
He himself writes : 

" Despairing of receiving Mr. Pitt's assistance at our 
head, a new plan for establishing a Ministry was pro- 
posed — several, with myself, understanding that it came 
forward with a full declaration of our desire to receive 
Mr. Pitt at our head, whenever he should see the situa- 
tion of affairs to be such as to allow him to take that 
part. My concern afterwards was great, when I found, 
before the conclusion of our first session, that this idea 
was already vanished from the minds of some of my 
colleagues. I always understood this to be the ground 
on which I engaged, and it will be seen that I adhered 
to my own resolution to the last." * 

Prominent among the supporters of Rockingham, 
In the House of Commons, were Sir George Saville, 
a man of great influence with his leader, of strong 
convictions and great constitutional knowledge, and 
Dowdeswell, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
Charles Townshend still retained the Paymastership, 
but did not profess any attachment to his col- 
leagues, while Lord Barrington, the Secretary of 
War, and Northington, the Lord Chancellor, were 

* Anson's Grafton, p. 54, 



1766] Repeal of the Stamp Act. 241 

avowedly servants of the King and in no sense 
followers of the Prime Minister. 

The fate of the Ministry depended on the favour 
of the King or the support of Pitt. The sovereign 
had accepted Rockingham as a last resort against 
George Grenville ; he preferred the Whigs with Pitt 
to the Whigs without him, because he believed 
Pitt's peculiar ideas on the subject of party would 
make a Ministry under him amenable to royal in- 
fluence : but now he had been compelled to accept 
the party he had intended to exclude from ofidce 
during his reign. Moreover, Rockingham and Con- 
way were personally distasteful, both having suffered 
official deprivation for their independence ; Chief 
Justice Pratt, the fearless judge who had asserted 
the illegality of general warrants, had been, by 
compulsion of the Ministers, raised to the peerage 
as Lord Camden ; and on the most important 
question of the day, the Stamp Act, Rockingham 
was for repeal, while the King believed in the act. 
With such grounds of royal disfavour, and with 
the controlling majority in Parliament under the 
sovereign's direction, Rockingham could not antici- 
pate a long tenure of office. But the unique fame, 
the wide popular favour of Pitt might have out- 
balanced the weight of the King's displeasure, and 
from the beginning the support of Pitt was solicited. 
It is clear that Pitt always distrusted the Ministry, 
and it is somewhat curious that the cause of his dis- 
trust was his old quarrel with the Duke of New- 
castle. At the great dinner of the leading men at 

which the distribution of offices was arranged, there 
16 



242 William Pitt. [1766 

was much difficulty in persuading Rockingham to 
take the Treasury, and Grafton states that New- 
castle gave up, his claims to leadership reluctantly. 
Pitt imagined that the former chieftain was to be 
the guiding spirit, and there are some evidences 
of activity on Newcastle's part which may have 
strengthened this suspicion. On several occasions 
before Parliament met Pitt's opinion on the Minis- 
try was asked. To Grafton on the 24th of August he 
wrote : " I have constantly averred that this Minis- 
try was not formed by my advice, but by the coun- 
sel of others ; that, from experience of different 
ways of thinking and of acting, Claremont * could 
not be to me an object of confidence or expectation 
of a solid system for the public good according to 
my notions of it." f To Thomas Walpole, to whom 
he had just sold Hayes, he said : "All I can say is 
this, that I move in the sphere only of measures. 
Quarrels at Court, or family reconciliations, shall 
never vary my fixed judgment of things. Those 
who, with me, have stood by the cause of liberty, 
and the national honour, upon true Revolution 
principles, will never find me against them, till they 
fall and do not act up to those principles." \ To 
George Cooke he remarked that he had finally re- 
solved never to be in confidence or concert again 
with Newcastle. In yet another letter Pitt wails in 
his favourite minor key : 

" The world now is fallen into the Duke of New- 
castle's hands ; the country is undone ; and I am of 

* Newcastle. f Chatham Corr., ii., 321-322. X I^^d-^ "•> 329. 



1766] Repeal of the Stamp Act. 243 

opinion, that no solid system for giving it but a chance 
for any tolerable degree of safety can be possible under 
his Grace's auspices, and where his influence colours and 
warps the whole." * 

All this is somewhat melancholy reading. Dread 
of Newcastle obscured Pitt's mind, and it was a 
singularly inadequate motive to govern such a man 
at such a crisis. Can Pitt have forgotten how he 
had ruled Newcastle himself ? Even if Newcastle 
had been chief Minister, Pitt's would have been in- 
comparably the strongest influence at Council and 
in Parliament, and with Rockingham as nominal 
chief, a man who would have resigned office without 
hesitation rather than countenance for a moment the 
usurped authority of Bute, there was little fear that 
the Ministry would have been dragged at the heels 
of the Court. The administration was open to the 
objection, as Pitt conceived it to be, of being founded 
on too narrow a bottom, and on one connection, and 
the ideal of a Ministry of all the talents and repre- 
senting all sections was a noble if impracticable one ; 
but the accession of Pitt would have widened its 
foundations, he would have received the ready sup- 
port of the ablest men in its ranks, and could have 
exercised practical control over its policy. But Pitt 
seems to have imbibed the malignant suspicions of 
Temple, and his will was fixed not to join the 
administration. 

It is a relief to turn from the personal antipathies 
which separated Rockingham and Pitt to the great 



* Chatham Correspondence, ii., 345. 



244 William Pitt. [i766 

question of public policy on which they were united. 
The Ministry is remembered as that which repealed 
the Stamp Act of Grenville and averted for a time 
the danger of schism in Greater Britain. It is 
America that gives unity to Pitt's career ; it was 
his war policy which drove the French from Canada, 
w^hich increased the debt of Great Britain, and made 
new sources of revenue necessary ; he had inspired 
in the colonies a lofty spirit, he had emancipated 
them from that fear of the French which made them 
lean on British protection, he had breathed into 
them the consciousness of organic unity. Having 
been chief agent in this work of consolidation, it was 
his fate to live through the years of dismemberment 
and disintegration, to watch the tragedy of estrange- 
ment proceed towards its relentless end. The series 
of events which led to the establishment of the 
United States is not indeed part of the biography of 
Pitt, as is the war which he conducted, but none the 
less it must be fully understood if a proper estimate 
of Pitt is to be made. We have seen him in the 
height of his power, acting with unimpeded freedom, 
a maker of history ; except for one brief space, we 
shall for the future see him hampered and almost 
powerless, the man of action transformed into the 
critic and prophet. If in the first period he made 
an Empire, in the second he struggled to avert an 
Empire's dissolution. It is this double aspect of his 
career as an imperial statesman which has given to 
his life a two-fold value in the study of imperial 
politics. 

Events in America, after the news that Grenville's 



17661 Repeal of the Stamp Act. 245 

policy had been adopted by Parliament arrived, 
were an anticipation of what might occur if more 
serious resistance became necessary. The presses 
were flooded with pamphlets arguing the question, 
and these, with the fragments of speeches, exhibit 
the spiritual origins of that passionate love of sober 
freedom which was the noblest element in the Ameri- 
can Revolution, as indeed it is the highest quality of 
English political history. Every Spaniard who sailed 
for America, said Adam Smith, hoped to find an El 
Dorado, but the emigration to New England had 
been an " exodus," not a search for gold but a 
change of country for the sake of religious freedom. 
" Religion is the great state-building principle ; these 
colonists could found a new State because they were 
already a Church." ^ That influence of a long train- 
ing in the religious freedom of the Independent 
Church in New England, of the Society of Friends 
in Pennsylvania, of the Presbyterian Church in parts 
of Virginia is writ large in the pamphlets of the 
time. It had encouraged the speculative intelli- 
gence, which was now turned keenly upon the very 
foundations of authority. The arguments used were 
largely those of the great Whig philosopher, Locke, 
and a theory which based society upon a compact 
between governor and governed supplied arguments 
in plenty against unlimited submission. It is inter- 
esting to observe how quotations from the Bible and 
from Locke mingle with passages from the classic 
writers, with heroic examples from what Pitt called 
the apostolic age of patriotism, the days of Scipio, 

* Expansion of England, p. 154. 



246 William Pitt. [1766 

or from the England of the Stuart period. Patrick 
Henry warned George III. that Tarquin and Caesar 
had each his Brutus, that Charles had his Cromwell. 
Jonathan Mayhew, the great Puritan preacher, told 
his congregation that he had drawn his ideas on civil 
liberty '' from Plato, Demosthenes, Cicero, and other 
renowned persons among the ancients ; from Sidney, 
Milton, Locke, and Hoadly, among the moderns ; 
that he had learnt from the Holy Scriptures that 
wise, virtuous, and brave men were always friends to 
liberty." "^ A principal difference between the French 
and American revolutions is that the former was an 
uprising against wrong and oppression, whereas in 
the latter men who worshipped freedom as a spirit- 
ual possession scented tyranny from afar, and were 
urged into resistance not by oppression but by the 
fear of oppression. 

Sentiment and enthusiasm played a great part, 
but a victorious common sense reigned over both. 
It was at once perceived that union among the col- 
onies was the true source of strength ; " There ought 
to be no New Englandman, no New Yorker, known 
on the continent, but all of us Americans." Frank- 
lin in his Canada pamphlet had told the English that 
union among the colonies was not merely improb- 
able, but impossible, unless, he added, by the most 
grievous tyranny and oppression. f He himself 
had experienced the difficulties attending the most 
elementary union in 1754, but the Stamp Act was a 
great unifying influence, and a Congress, in which 
nine colonies were represented, assembled at New 

* Tyler, op. cit., i., 132. f Works, iv., 42. 



1766] Repeal of the Stamp Act. 247 

York in October, 1765. " Those who compose it," 
wrote Gage to Secretary Conway, " are of various 
characters and opinions, but in general the spirit of 
democracy is strong among them, supporting the 
independence of the provinces as not subject to the 
legislative power of Great Britain. The question is 
not of the expediency of the Stamp Act, but that it 
is unconstitutional and contrary to their rights." 
Very cautious resolutions were passed with practical 
unanimity by the Congress, which drew up fourteen 
declaratory resolutions of right, and petitions to the 
King and each House of Parliament. These dwell 
on the right of trial by jury in opposition to the 
Admiralty court, complain of the late restrictions 
of trade, acknowledge all due subordination to the 
Parliament, but assert that the people of the colo- 
nies, who are entitled to all the rights of natural- 
born subjects, are not, and from local circumstances 
never can be, represented by the House of Com- 
mons. '^ It is inseparably essential to the freedom 
of a people, and the undoubted right of English- 
men, that no taxes be imposed on them but with 
their own consent given personally or by their repre- 
sentatives." Such was the constitutional ground 
taken. Other measures of a practical kind were 
adopted, by common consent, with no need of legal 
sanction. The merchants agreed to send no more 
orders to Great Britain for goods, and suspended 
payment of their debts to merchants in the mother 
country, until the Stamp Act should be repealed. 
The stamps were boycotted : all legal business was 
at a standstill until the royal governors were 



248 Willimn Pitt. [1766 

compelled to issue letters authorising for a time non- 
compliance with the act. The Stamp Act was 
hawked about, the streets as Britain's Folly and 
America's Ruin. The riots and disorders which are 
an inevitable accompaniment of all great popular 
ferments broke out at Boston, where the Admiralty 
court was burned and Hutchinson's house was 
broken into by the mob. It is an evil side of this 
great agitation for liberty that such conduct was 
allowed to go unpunished, though it was totally in- 
consistent with the constitutional appeal to the King 
and Parliament which the Congress had initiated. 

The colonists had stated their case in calm and 
dignified language, which insisted on their rights as 
free citizens of the Empire, but at the same time 
acknowledged the obligations of loyalty and their 
affection for Great Britain, and they had launched 
a series of retaliatory commercial measures. The 
latter quickly produced an effect on English public 
opinion. The traders of London, Bristol, and Liv- 
erpool sent petitions to Parliament stating that the 
colonists owed several millions for goods supplied ; 
that they had hitherto paid their debts punctually, 
but now declared that they could not do so. Mary- 
land and Virginia owed half a million to Glasgow 
alone, and in Manchester, Nottingham, and Leeds, 
thousands of men were thrown out of employment by 
the cessation of American orders.* A great impres- 
sion had thus been made on those mercantile classes 
upon whose special knowledge politicians had always 
relied for guidance in their colonial policy. In 

* Lecky, History of England^ iii., 333. 



1766] Repeal of the Stamp Act. 249 

strictly political circles in England, few men realised 
the importance of the Stamp Act, and during the 
negotiations which led to the Rockingham Ministry, 
the only reference made to the subject was Pitt's 
repudiation of the scheme in his audience with the 
King.* The new administration, in which Burke 
saw the beginning of uniform party conviction, was 
divided on the question. 

The Duke of Cumberland would have favoured 
enforcement of the act, and after his death, North- 
ington, Yorke, Barrington, were all in favour of the 
principle. Rockingham himself wished for repeal 
in order to avoid the confusion that must follow 
coercion ; Conway and Grafton agreed. The King 
believed in the right to tax, and preferred modifica- 
tion to repeal, but, he said, repeal is better than 
enforcement by the sword. When Parliament met 
in December, affairs in America were referred to as 
*' matters of importance," but no policy was fore- 
shadowed in the King's speech. Angry debates 
occurred in both Houses, in which the Bedford 
party, Mansfield, Grenville, and Charles Townshend 

* Mr. Lecky points out the very remarkable fact that in his discus- 
sion with Cumberland, Pitt traversed the whole situation, but said 
nothing of America. " There is not the smallest evidence that 
either Pitt or Cumberland, or any of the other statesmen who were 
concerned in the negotiation, were conscious that any serious quest- 
ion was impending in America. " This is true as to the May negotia- 
tions, but needs supplementing by Pitt's remarks to the King in 
June. Grenville says that Pitt's blame of the Stamp Act was among 
the " fundamentals " he laid down to the King. (June 26, 1765. 
Grenville Papers^ iii., 203). Shelburne and Pitt "strongly com- 
mended Barre's conduct " in opposing the act. Life of Shelburne^ 
i., 322, 323. 



250 William Pitt, [1766 

were conspicuous by their demand that British 
authority should be maintained. The Ministers did 
not state any poHcy, and it is noteworthy that those 
who spoke for the colonies were Shelburne, who had 
visited Pitt on his way to town, and Cooke and 
Beckford, who were on intimate terms with Pitt. 
During the Christmas recess a meeting of Ministers 
was held, but they could agree on no consistent 
plan of operations, and decided upon a King's speech 
that should recommend the subject in general terms 
to the wisdom of Parliament."^ It is clear that when 
Pitt came to London in January the question of re- 
peal was an open one. 

What was the exact relation of Pitt to Ministers ? 
That was the problem which exercised politicians. 
The debates of December had exhibited the strength 
of opposition and the strong prejudice against the 
colonists existing in both Houses. Rockingham 
offered Shelburne a high position after the latter's 
strong speech against the Stamp Act, but the only 
reply he received was that Shelburne believed that 
without Mr. Pitt no durable and respectable system 
could be formed. Writing to his chief, Shelburne 
says that he is astonished at the infatuation of Min- 
isters in being '' persuaded, as they appear to be, of 
the confidence of the Court." ''Only Pitt can put 
an end to the condition of anarchy existing." '' Lord 
Rockingham expressed himself certain of Mr. Pitt's 
good wishes, and that they were ready to be dis- 
posed of as he pleased." f Pitt in reply again re- 

* Adolphus, Hist, of George III., i., 198 (1848). 
I Chatham Correspondence, i., 353. 



1766] Repeal of the Stamp Act, 251 

ferred to Newcastle's influence. Within the 
Ministry, Grafton particularly desired an immediate 
resort to Pitt, and when the latter arrived in town 
negotiations were opened. Thomas Townshend, 
a leader among the country gentlemen, had visited 
Pitt at Bath to ask his advice and to say that the 
Ministers desired much to have him at their head. 
Pitt's answer was somewhat cold, but Grafton recom- 
mended that Pitt should be invited to see the King 
and give his advice on the American matter. *' I 
presumed to recommend this step to his Majesty, 
who had no objection to it, until he had seen Lord 
Rockingham.'"^ On January 6th, the King, pre- 
sumably after this interview with the chief Minister, 
sent Rockingham his formal decision '' that so loose 
a conversation as that of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Town- 
shend is not sufiflcient to risk either my dignity or 
the continuance of my administration, by a fresh 
treaty with that gentleman. ... I shall there- 
fore, undoubtedly, to-morrow decline authorising the 
Duke of Grafton to say anything to Mr. Pitt."f So 
matters stood when Parliament met again on Janu- 
ary 14, 1766. 

Pitt had not been in the House for twelve months, 
but during those twelve months had been constantly 
solicited to take office, both by the sovereign and 
by the Whigs. At this moment he was arbiter of 
the ministerial policy and the ministerial fate, and a 
crowded House waited anxiously for the words that 



* Anson's Grafton^ p. 63. Sir W. Anson's notes elucidate this 
transaction. 

\ Rockingham Memoirs, i., 266. 



252 Williafyi Pitt. [1766 

should dispel doubt and rumour, and prove whether 
Pitt had joined in Lord Temple's political reconcil- 
iation with George Grenville or intended to assist 
repeal. The royal speech informed Parliament that 
matters of importance had happened in America, 
and orders had been issued for the support of lawful 
authority. Whatever remained to be done, he com- 
mitted to their wisdom. The debate which followed 
made this one of the greatest occasions in the his- 
tory of the House of Commons ; the question de- 
bated was momentous for the nation, for the empire, 
and for mankind ; the argument resolved itself into 
a duel between the two chief members of the assem- 
bly, men who had been friends in youth, but now 

' ' They stood aloof, the scars remaining, 
Like cliffs which had been rent asunder." 

The pedantic and pedestrian mind of the one con- 
trasted with the rapid imagination of the other; 
Grenville's technical accuracy and careful logic dis- 
sected the lofty declamations of Pitt ; it was a com- 
bat between the mechanical forces of talent and the 
irresistible energy of genius. 

Pitt spoke early in the debate, and began with a 
brief dissertation upon parties."^ " I stand up in 
this place, single and unconnected. As to the late 
Ministry," turning to Grenville, who sat within one 
of him, ''every capital measure they have taken is 
entirely wrong. To the present gentlemen, to those 



* The fullest report is in Bancroft. A French precis, which Ban- 
croft consulted contains several additions to the accepted English 
version, which was reported by Sir Robert Head. 



1766] Repeal of the Stamp Act. 253 

at least whom I have in my eye " (looking at Con- 
way), " I have no objection ; I have not been made a 
sacrifice by any of them. Their characters are fair, 
and I am always glad when men of fair characters 
engage in his Majesty's service. Some of them have 
done me the honour to ask my opinion before they 
would engage. They will do me the justice to own, 
I advised them to engage ; but, notwithstanding, — 
I love to be explicit, — I cannot give them my con- 
fidence : pardon me, gentlemen, confidence is a plant 
of slow growth in an aged bosom ; youth is the sea- 
son of credulity. By comparing events with each 
other, reasoning from effects to causes, methinks I 
plainly discover the traces of an overruling influ- 
ence." This was taken for a reference to Newcastle, 
though what traces of an overruling influence Pitt 
found, it is difficult to say. The great orator then 
delivered his soul, and the Stamp Act party found 
that he at least would meet them not with the 
hesitating and ambiguous utterances of the divided 
Ministry, but with a clear and certain voice. 

"When the resolution was taken in the House to tax 
America, I was ill in bed. If I could have endured to 
have been carried in my bed, so great was the agitation 
of my mind for the consequences, I would have soHcited 
some kind hand to have laid me down on this floor, to 
have borne my testimony against it. It is now an Act 
that has passed. I would speak with decency of every 
Act of this House, but must beg indulgence to speak of 
it with freedom. The subject of debate is of greater 
importance than ever engaged the attention of this 
House ; that subject only excepted when nearly a 



2 54 William Pitt, [1766 

century ago, it was a question whether you yourselves 
were to be bond or free. The manner in which this 
affair will be terminated will decide the judgment of 
posterity of the glory of this kingdom, and the wisdom 
of its government during the present reign. ... I 
must now, though somewhat unreasonably — leaving the 
expediency of the Stamp Act to another time — speak to 
a point of infinite moment, I mean to the right. Some 
seem to have considered it as a point of honour, and 
leave all measures of right and wrong, to follow a delu- 
sion that may lead us to destruction. . . . America 
being neither really nor virtually represented in West- 
minster, cannot be held legally, or constitutionally, or 
reasonably subject to obedience to any money bill of 
this kingdom. . . . The Americans are the sons, not 
the bastards of England. As subjects they are entitled 
to the common right of representation, and cannot be 
bound to pay taxes without their consent. Taxation is 
no part of the governing power. The taxes are a volun- 
tary gift and grant of the Commons alone. In an 
American tax, what do we do ? We, your Majesty's 
Commons of Great Britain, give and grant to your Maj- 
esty, what ? our own property ? No. We give and grant 
to your Majesty the property of your Majesty's Com- 
mons in America. It is an absurdity in terms. . . 
There is an idea in some that the Colonies are virtually 
represented in this House. ... I would fain know 
by whom an American is represented here ? Is he re- 
presented by any Knight of the Shire ? Would to God 
that respectable representation was augmented to a 
greater number ! Or will you tell him that he is repre- 
sented by any representative of a borough ? a borough 
which, perhaps, no man ever saw. That is what is called 
the rotten part of the Constitution. It cannot endure 



1766] Repeal of the Stamp Act. 255 

the century. If it does not drop it must be amputated. 
The idea of a virtual representation of America in this 
House is the most contemptible that ever entered into 
the head of a man. It does not deserve a serious refuta- 
tion. The Commons of America, represented in their 
several assemblies, have ever been in possession of the 
exercise of this their constitutional right, of giving and 
granting their own money. They would have been 
slaves if they had not enjoyed it. . . . If this House 
suffers the Stamp Act to continue in force, France will 
gain more by your colonies than she ever could have 
done if her arms in the last war had been victorious. I 
never shall own the justice of taxing America internally 
until she enjoys the right of representation. In every 
other point of legislation, the authority of Parliament is 
like the North star, fixed for the reciprocal benefit of the 
parent country and her colonies. The British Parlia- 
ment, as the supreme governing and legislative power, 
has always bound them by her laws, by her regulations 
of their trade and commerce, and even in a more absol- 
ute interdiction of both. Here I would draw the line." 

Conway spoke a few words of deference to Pitt, 
and said that his speech expressed the sentiments 
of most, if not all, the King's servants. Then Gren- 
ville rose to defend his favourite measure, and to 
obliterate, if possible, the effect produced by Pitt's 
argument. He began with the disturbances in Amer- 
ica, which he said " border on open rebellion ; and if 
the doctrine I have heard this day be confirmed, 
nothing can tend more directly to produce a revolu- 
tion." External and internal taxes are the same in 
effect ; this kingdom is sovereign, and taxation is 



256 William Pitt, ii766 

part of the sovereign power. It is one branch of 
legislation. Parliament taxes the India Company, 
and many great towns, such as Manchester, which 
are not represented. So, too, it taxed the palatinate 
of Chester, and the bishopric of Wales before they 
sent representatives. The Crown cannot exempt by 
charter any family or colony from subordination to 
the Parliament. The Stamp Act is but the pretext 
of which they make use to arrive at independence. 
It was thoroughly considered. Protection and obedi- 
ence are reciprocal. Great Britain protects America ; 
America is bound to yield obedience. 

" If not, tell me when the Americans were emanci- 
pated? Ungrateful people of America ! Bounties have 
been extended to them. When I had the honour to serve 
the Crown, while you yourselves were loaded with an 
enormous debt of one hundred and forty millions, and 
paid a revenue of ten millions, you have given bounties 
on their lumber, their iron, their hemp and many other 
things. You have relaxed, in their favour, the Act of 
Navigation, that palladium of British commerce. I 
offered to do everything in my power to advance the 
trade of America. I discouraged no trade but what was 
prohibited by Act of Parliament." 

Such is a summary of Grenville's argument, which 
is logical enough from the standpoint he always 
chose — that of the complete sovereignty of Parlia- 
ment. When he ended, Pitt rose again, with his 
customary disregard for those rules of order which 
the ordinary Parliamentarian so deeply reverences. 
Grenville's speech had touched him to the quick, 



1766] Repeal of the Stamp Act. 257 

and this reply was delivered with ardour and pas- 
sion, in an impetuous torrent of oratory ; no other 
speech of Pitt produced so great an effect, and few 
speeches that any man has delivered since the be- 
ginning of civilisation have produced wider results 
than this unpremeditated reply. Its influence on 
American opinion was decisive. 

*' I have been charged with giving birth to sedition in 
America. ... I rejoice that America has resisted. If 
its millions of inhabitants had submitted, taxes would 
soon have been laid on Ireland ; and if ever this nation 
should have a tyrant for its king, six millions of freemen, 
so dead to all the feelings of liberty, as voluntarily to 
submit to be slaves, would be fit instruments to make 
slaves of the rest. I come not here armed at all points 
with law cases and Acts of Parliament, with the Statute- 
book doubled down in dog's ears, to defend the cause of 
liberty. ... I draw my ideas of freedom from the 
vital powers of the British Constitution, not from the 
crude and fallacious notions too much relied on as if we 
were but in the morning of liberty. . . . The gentleman 
tells us of many who are taxed, and are not represented 
— the India Company, merchants, stockholders, manu- 
facturers. Many of these are represented in other capac- 
ities. They are all inhabitants, and as such are virtually 
represented. They have connection with those who 
elect, and they have influence over them. Not one of 
the Ministers who have taken the lead of government 
since the accession of King William, ever recommended 
a tax like this. None of them ever dreamed of robbing 
the colonies of their constitutional rights. That was re- 
served to mark the era of the late Administration. Not 

that there were wanting some, when I had the honour to 
17 



258 William Pitt, [1766 

serve his Majesty, to propose to me that I should burn 
my fingers with the American Stamp Act. ... If the 
gentleman cannot understand the difference between in- 
ternal and external taxes, I cannot help it. But there is 
a plain distinction between taxes levied for the purpose 
of raising revenue, and duties imposed for the accom- 
modation of the subject, although in the consequences, 
some revenue may accidentally arise from the latter. 

" The gentleman asks, when were the colonies eman- 
cipated ? I desire to know when they were made slaves. 
The profits to Great Britain from the trade of the colon- 
ies are two millions a year. That was the fund that car- 
ried you triumphantly through the last war. . . . And 
shall a miserable financier come with a boast, that he can 
filch a peppercorn into the exchequer to the loss of mil- 
lions to the nation ? I dare not say how much higher 
these profits may be augmented. Omitting the immense 
increase of people in the northern colonies by natural 
population, and the migration from every part of Europe, 
I am convinced the whole commercial system may be 
altered to advantage. 

" A great deal has been said without doors of the 
strength of America. It is a topic that ought to be 
cautiously meddled with. In a good cause, on a sound 
bottom, the force of this country can crush America to 
atoms. But on this ground, on the Stamp Act, when so 
many here will think it a crying injustice, I am one 
who will lift up my hands against it. In such a cause 
your success will be hazardous. America if she fall, 
would fall like the strong man. She would embrace the 
pillars of the State, and pull down the Constitution along 
with her. 

" Is this your boasted peace ? Not to sheathe the 
sword in its scabbard, but to sheathe it in the bowels of 



1766] Repeal of the Stamp Act. 259 

your countrymen ? Will you quarrel with yourselves now 
the whole House of Bourbon is united against you ? 
. . . The Americans have not acted in all things with 
prudence and temper. They have been driven to mad- 
ness by injustice. Will you punish them for the madness 
you have occasioned ? Rather let prudence and temper 
come first from this side. I will undertake for America 
that she will follow the example. 

* Be to her faults a little blind, 
Be to her virtues very kind.' 

" Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the House 
what is really my opinion. It is that the Stamp Act be 
repealed absolutely, totally and immediately. That the 
reason for the repeal be assigned, because it was founded 
on an erroneous principle. At the same time let the 
sovereign authority of this country over the colonies be 
asserted in as strong terms as can be assigned and be 
made to extend to every point of legislation whatsoever. 
That we may bind their trade, confine their manufactures, 
and exercise every power whatsoever, except that of tak- 
ing their money out of their pockets without their own 
consent." 

This speech states the principles which Pitt main- 
tained throughout his life. Here is no trace of that 
arrogance which led Charles Townshend scornfully 
to reject the colonists as allies, or Northington to 
declare that America must submit. There is an 
agreeable irony in the reflection that Northington 
believed himself a better patriot than William Pitt. 
The men of narrow vision saw the greatness of their 
country vanish if she did not compel abject submis- 
sion ; but the man who had dispatched fleets and 



26o William Pitt, [1766 

armies, who knew the value of her troops, the skill of 
her officers, who confessed that he loved honourable 
war, was not intoxicated by power ; his keener insight 
and more generous spirit perceived that the dominion 
of Great Britain must depend on the spontaneous 
loyalty of her people, that the effective sanction of 
her commands must be sought in a jealously guarded 
equality among all subjects. Directing and super- 
intending authority must remain in the centre and 
seat of empire, but this authority must be used in 
the interests of what Pitt called " the wide-extended 
whole." Most of those who opposed the Stamp 
Act argued from the point of view of expediency, 
but Pitt laid even greater stress upon the principle 
involved. Great lawyers believed that Parliament 
had a legal right, as the great common council of the 
Empire, to tax any subject of Great Britain ; that 
the only ground on which the colonists could claim 
exemption was in the privileges granted by their 
charters, and that even that exemption could not 
prevail, since the charters granted by the Crown 
were powerless to abrogate the authority of Parlia- 
ment. In strict constitutional law, this argument 
was one of great force, but Pitt and Camden met it 
with the dogma that taxation was inseparable from 
representation, — a dogma, they said, which was 
the essence of the Great Charter, and had been 
strengthened by the invariable practice with regard 
to the colonies. The reply that the Americans were 
"virtually" represented was a misleading artifice, as 
was clearly shown in Daniel Delaney's pamphlet, 
Considerations on the Propriety of Taxing the CoU 



1766] Repeal of the Stamp Act. 261 

onies^ one of the ablest American arguments, from 
which Pitt freely quoted in this speech.* " The 
security of the British non-electors against oppres- 
sion is that their oppression will fall also upon the 
electors and the representatives." If not taxed by 
Parliament they would never be taxed at all. 

Questions of abstract right in politics, said Burke, 
ought to be left to the schools, for there only they 
can be discussed with safety ; and when Parliament 
is sovereign and bound by no written Constitution 
there is no text or canon by which its right can be 
limited. Camden described his dogma as founded 
on " the eternal law of nature " that what is a man's 
own cannot be taken away except by his own con- 
sent. A great living authority, Sir William Anson, 
remarks that " the rhodomontade of Camden on this 
subject exhibits a treatment of constitutional law and 
legal history, astonishing in a man who enjoyed some 
reputation as a judge." f Pitt, who shared the delu- 
sion of his contemporaries that Camden was a great 
lawyer, called the speech " divine." It is clear, how- 
ever, that Camden's eternal law of nature might have 
been overruled at any moment by Parliament, and 
that his doctrine of the inseparability of taxation 
and representation was only true as a statement of 
established usage. No abstract right of man limited 
the unfettered sovereignty of Parliament, and in 
contending against the right of Parliament, Pitt and 

* See Mr. Tyler's interesting note, op. cii., i., 111-113. His opinion 
that Pitt freely used the pamphlet is confirmed by Shelburne's letter 
to Pitt which refers to the great honour paid by the latter to Delaney's 
argument in the House of Commons. Chatham Correspondence, iii., 
192. \ Anson's Grafton, p. 68, note. 



262 William Pitt, [1766 

Camden were compelled to call in aid that abstract 
right. Grenville was technically accurate in assert- 
ing that what Parliament, the supreme lawmaker, 
formally enacted, could not be " illegal," but the 
mind which relies on such bare logical considerations 
and builds its conclusions on that narrow basis is 
certain to blunder in dealing with the compHcated 
task of government. The vision and sympathy of 
Pitt were safer guides, and his treatment of this 
problem was an anticipation of the modern view of 
colonial rights, though his dogma of taxation was in 
theory open to dispute. Grenville was a sincere 
Whig and believed in Parliamentary government; 
he made his great mistake because he did not per- 
ceive that a perfectly legal exercise of Parliamentary 
authority may be, in fact though not in form, as pro- 
vocative and as tyrannical as the levying of ship- 
money through the prerogative. 

The immense effect created by Pittas eloquence is 
shown by Rockingham's letter to the King, written 
on the following day ; he observed that it showed 
how great was Pitt's influence whenever he chose to 
appear. *' That your Majesty's present Administra- 
tion will be shook to the greatest degree, if no fur- 
ther attempt is made to get Mr. Pitt to take a cordial 
part, is much too apparent to be disguised." * On 
January i6th, Grafton saw the King, who declared 
his firm resolution that no declaration should be car- 
ried to Mr. Pitt from him. Grafton went to Pitt and 
had a long conversation with him the same evening. 
Pitt said that 



* Rockingham Memoirs^ i,, 270, January 15th. 



17661 Repeal of the Stamp Act. 263 

" if he was called to form a proper system, it must be with 
the present Secretaries and First Lord of the Treasury, 
they co-operating, willing and thoroughly confidential ; 
any honours or favours to be shewn to the Duke of New- 
castle, but not to be of the Cabinet ; as his perplexing 
and irksome jealousies would cast a damp upon the- 
vigour of every measure. . . . 

" He owned that he saw with pleasure the present 
administration take the places of the last ; he came up 
upon the American affair, a point on which he feared 
they might be borne down." * 

Encouraged by this interview, Grafton again saw the 
King, who was persuaded to allow Grafton and Rock- 
ingham to take a message from him to Pitt. Two 
questions were put : *' First, whether, at this time, 
Mr. Pitt is disposed to come into the King's serv- 
ice ; second, whether, if Lord Temple should de- 
cline to take a part, this will be a reason for Mr. 
Pitt declining also." On the first, writes Grafton, 
Pitt said 

" that the men who now served his Majesty would be 
those with whom he should wish to act, but there must 
be a ti'ansposition of offices ; which as he repeated it sev- 
eral times, appeared to me to be ill received by Lord 
Rockingham ; but, as his lordship made no reply and I 
made no observation, this must be considered only as my 
opinion." f 

Pitt said, further, that Temple's refusal to engage 
would not affect his own action. Nothing came of 
this interview, much to Grafton's surprise ; Rocking- 

* Anson's Grafton, pp. 65, 66. f Ibid.^ 67, 



264 Willia^n Pitt. \xi^e 

ham was unwilling to accept a transposition of offices, 
and he represented to the King that Pitt's proposals 
were impracticable, whereupon Pitt was informed 
through Shelburne that *' His Majesty does not 
judge proper to have any further proceeding in the 
matter." ^ It is hardly matter of wonder that Pitt 
was moved to resentment by these constant negotia- 
tions ending in nothing. 

The policy finally adopted by the Ministers was to 
repeal the Stamp Act, and at the same time to pass 
a Declaratory Act affirming the right of Parliament to 
tax America. They succeeded, after many struggles, 
and mainly by the active assistance of Pitt, in carry- 
ing repeal. The colonists, satisfied by this great 
victory, voted thanks to the King and Parliament, 
and selected for special praise the names of Pitt, 
Camden, and Barre. Their Assemblies gained no 
honour by declining to vote compensation to those 
who had suffered by the riots, but a period of peace 
followed the storm, and little notice was taken of 
Rockingham's second measure. The justification of 
the Declaratory Act is usually found in the state 
of parties, which made it impossible to carry repeal 
without some counteracting act affirming British sov- 
ereignty. Rockingham was not powerful enough to 
persuade the King to permit repeal alone, and the 
Ministry existed by sufferance of the King's friends 
in Parliament. Although this reasoning supplies an 
apology for Rockingham, the Declaratory Act was 
an evil precedent, and a fatal acknowledgment of the 
strength of Grenville and the Bedfords ; a deliberate 

* Fitzmaurice's Shelburne, i., 376, 



1766] Repeal of the Stamp Act. 265 

reassertion of the right to tax was an invitation to 
succeeding Ministers to put that right into opera- 
tion. Pitt, Camden, and Shelburne opposed the 
Act, but they were almost alone. In other respects 
the Administration adopted a liberal and enlight- 
ened policy towards the colonists ; they reduced the 
duty on West Indian molasses from sixpence to one 
penny, reaping a heavy revenue as reward, and they 
opened free ports in the islands. Burke was un- 
doubtedly the instigator of these schemes, which 
were an advance on the ideas of the mercantile sys- 
tem. Pitt himself never grasped the most rudiment- 
ary notions of a free-trade philosophy. 

On February 26th, Rockingham sent a formal 
memorandum to Mr. Pitt."^ *' He wished to God 
Mr. Pitt would give some plan for arranging an Ad- 
ministration, putting himself at the head of it." He 
desired to settle arrangements before laying the 
matter before the King, as he feared, if arrange- 
ments were not previously settled, it might end in 
breaking to pieces the present Administration. Pitt 
declined any conference on the formation of an Ad- 
ministration, without the express commands of the 
King; to obtrude his opinion would be the highest 
presumption. ^' The King's pleasure and gracious 
commands alone shall be a call to me ; I am deaf 
to every other thing. The sum of things is that I 
am fitter for a lonely hill in Somersetshire than for 
the affairs of State." f 

Matters continued thus, Grafton and Conway be- 

* Chathaj7i Correspondence ^ ii., 397-401, 

\ Ibid.^ iii., 12. Pitt to Shelburne, February 24, 1766. 



266 William Pitt. [1766 

ing well aware that the Ministry might fall at any mo- 
ment ; Rockingham, however, came to think that he 
could stand without Pitt, and on April 2ist, declared 
without hesitation to Grafton, that " he would never 
advise his Majesty to call Mr. Pitt into his closet ; 
that this was a fixed resolution to which he would 
adhere." ^ In May, the King consulted with Hard- 
wicke, who declined high office ; Hardwicke writes : 
*' I endeavoured to sound the King's disposition to- 
wards Mr. Pitt, but he appeared not at all favourable 
to him at that moment ; called his popularity an 
ignis fat tmSy and took some merit in not having ad- 
mitted him to state his own terms, which he knew 
were levelled against his present Administration." f 
In the same month Grafton resigned, on the express 
ground, publicly stated, that *^ he knew but one 
man, Mr. Pitt, who could give the Ministers strength 
and solidity ; that under him he should be willing 
to serve in any capacity, not only as a general officer, 
but as a pioneer, and would take up a spade and 
mattock." Though Grafton was succeeded by the 
Duke of Richmond, the Ministry was on the eve of 
dismissal. The death-blow was struck by the Lord 
Chancellor, who had always been the foe of Rock- 
ingham ; on a report concerning the government of 
Quebec he openly quarrelled with his colleagues, 
went to the King and informed him it was impossi- 
ble for the Ministers to govern the country, declined 
attending the Cabinet, and refused to hold the Great 
Seal under such government. On July 12, 1766, 
the Rockingham Administration ended. 

* Anson's Grafton, p. 76. f Rockingham Memoirs ^ i., 337. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE CHATHAM MINISTRY. 



1 766- 1 769. 



GEORGE III., when he ascended the throne, 
was intent upon getting rid of Pitt, but he 
seems to have cherished some Hking and re- 
spect for the great War Minister during the first ten 
years of his reign. Pitt was extravagant, almost 
oriental, in his expressions of devotion and loyalty, 
and his critics have frequently ridiculed the contra- 
diction between his patriot speeches and exuberant 
professions to the King. '* The least peep into the 
royal closet intoxicated him," said Burke. In reality 
monarchy captivated his imagination very much as 
the French monarchy captivated the imagination of 
Burke, and although George III. disliked eloquence 
in the closet as sincerely as he disliked the poetry of 
Shakespeare, Pitt's magniloquent submissiveness was 
more pleasing than the calm common sense of 
Rockingham, or the hectoring dictation of Bedford 
and Grenville. There was a more substantial reason 
for royal encouragement of Pitt in his ideas concern- 
ing party, which the King was determined to put 

267 



268 William Pitt, [1766- 

into effect. A great distinction existed between 
George III.'s objection to Government by conne^c- 
tions and that of Pitt. " The ruHng humour of the 
King," as Horace Walpole astutely said, " was that 
whoever attached himself to any First Minister was 
not his Majesty's man." On the other hand, Pitt's 
view was expressed in his frequent saying, " Connec- 
tions as to men are mean, but as to measures com- 
mendable." It is clear that the King did not call in 
Pitt because he believed in his measures ; he feared, 
possibly, that a longer tenure of office might tend to 
consolidate the Rockinghams, though he knew their 
weakness at the time. Whatever his reason, the 
sovereign determined to call in the most illustrious of 
his subjects, and Northington was commissioned to 
write to Pitt in the King's name, and to enclose a 
letter from the King himself."^ *' Your very dutiful 
and handsome conduct the last summer makes me 
desirous of having your thought how an able and 
distinguished Ministry may be formed," wrote the 
King. 

Pitt hurried to town from Burton Pynsent, wish- 
ing (he wrote) '' that he could change infirmity into 
wings of expedition." His interview with the King 
was a very satisfactory one, as no objection was 
raised to any of Pitt's suggestions. It was agreed 
that the basis of administration should be found in 
the existing Ministry, but the disposal of offices was 
postponed until Lord Temple should arrive. The 



* The letters concerning this negotiation are in Chatham Cor- 
respondence^ ii., 462-471. See also Anson's Grafton, pp. 89-97. 



1769] The Chatham Ministry. 269 

breach of opinion on the American question had 
cooled the ardour of Pitt's friendship with his ally, 
but Pitt intended to offer him the Treasury. Tem- 
ple first saw the King, who wrote an account of the 
interview to Pitt. *' I opened to him a desire of 
seeing him in the Treasury. I am sorry to see, 
though we only kept in generals, that he seems to 
incline to quarters very heterogeneous to my and 
your idea of things, and almost a total exclusion to 
the present men, — which is not your plan." On the 
following day Pitt and Temple had a long conversa- 
tion, which resulted in Temple's definite refusal to 
take ofilice. Pitt offered him the Treasury, and the 
appointment of his own Board, but further than that 
he declined to go, either in the exclusion of present 
Ministers or the appointment of others, such as 
Gower and Lyttleton, whom Temple desired to in- 
clude. Temple's view was that he ought to come in 
on an equality with Pitt. Pitt, on the other hand, 
declined to admit this equality. Contemporary 
gossip exaggerated the quarrel, and stories of high 
words were naturally believed.^ As a matter of fact 
the conversation was peaceably conducted, though 
Temple was greatly enraged ; " I must do justice," 
wrote Pitt to his wife, " to the kind and affectionate 
behaviour which Lord Temple held throughout the 
whole of our long talk." Temple wrote to George 
Grenville : 

" The intended basis of the new, virtuous, and pa- 
triotic Administration, is to be the Rump of the last, 



* See, e. g., Walpole, Memoirs of George III., ii., 243, 245. 



270 William Pitt. [1766- 

strengthened by the particular friends of Mr. Pitt, the 
whole consisting of all the most choice spirits who did in 
the last Session most eminently distinguish themselves in 
the sacrifice and honour of the whole legislature and 
kingdom of Great Britain. At the head of this I might 
have stood a capital cypher, surrounded with cyphers 
of quite a different complexion, the whole under the 
guidance of that great Luminary, the Great Commoner, 
with the Privy Seal in his hand." * 

In a word, Temple declared he would not go in like 
a child to come out like a fool. Pitt had done ample 
justice to his claims by offering the Treasury, f 

Pitt told Grafton that the King heartily adopted 
and would support Mr. Pitt's determination of stand- 
ing in the gap to defend the closet against every 
contending party, and his plan was eventually to 
select the men of the best talents and fortunes and 
highest rank from every party. But no immediate 
steps were taken to gather together a coalition of 
all the interests and all the talents, as the Ministry 
consisted of the followers of Pitt and Rockingham 
with a sprinkling of the King's friends. Camden 
became Lord Chancellor, Grafton First Lord of the 



* Grenville Papers, iii., 267. Walpole states inaccurately that 
Temple insisted on bringing in George Grenville. 

'\ Lord Temple declined a visit Pitt proposed making to Stowe 
and published a bitter pamphlet written by Humphrey Coates 
against Pitt. The reply contains one sentence which Chesterfield 
thought was in Pitt's style : " Had he [Ld. Temple] not fastened 
himself into Mr. Pitt's train, he might have crept out of life with as 
little notice as he crept in ; and gone off with no other degree of 
credit, than that of adding a single unit to the bills of mortality." 



1769] The Chatham Ministry. 271 

Treasury, Northington President of the Council, 
Shelburne and Conway Secretaries of State, Granby 
Commander-in-Chief, Saunders First Lord of the 
Admiralty, and Charles Townshend, after great hes- 
itation, Chancellor of the Exchequer. These were 
men of abilities, but taken alone they hardly repre- 
sented any greater strength in Parliament than that 
which Pitt's first Ministry of 1756 possessed. The 
process of securing support was not made easier by 
Pitt's method of dealing with men, which was some- 
what curt and offensive. As Grafton wrote : 

" His views were great and noble, worthy of a patriot : 
but they were too visionary to expect that ambitious and 
interested men would co-operate in promoting them. 
He had persuaded himself, that his weight as a states- 
man, together with his present popularity, and the cause 
well supported by his Majesty, would be able to recon- 
cile every man to those parts which he had designed for 
them. Mr. Pitt's plan was Utopian, and I will venture 
to add, that he lived too much out of the world to have 
a right knowledge of mankind.* 

Rockingham was among those who were hostile 
to Pitt, and when the latter called at his house the 
ex-Minister refused to see him, an incident that 
made a great noise in the world. 

" I took my chance to-day at Lord Rockingham's 
door," wrote Pitt to Grafton, f " but found his lordship 
going out, so was not let in. I meant to make a visit of 
respect, as a private man to Lord Rockingham, and had 
I found his lordship, to have told him, as Pitt to Lord 

* Anson's (Jra/Zc;?, p. 91. \ Ibid., 98. 



272 Wzlliam Pitt. [1766- 

Rockingham, what I understood to be the King's fixed 
intentions." 

The outside view of the incident is given in a 
letter from Charles Lloyd to Grenville : 

" Lord Rockingham has bearded Mr. Pitt in letting 
him come in as far as his hall, and then sending word 
by a footman that he could not see him. The explana- 
tion he gave of this at the Board to-day, is, that as a 
private man he would on every occasion that he could, 
resent Mr. Pitt's contemptuous usage of him ; as a pub- 
lic man, he should neither oppose nor support his meas- 
ures. Pitt says, I hear, that he is resolved never to be 
angry again, but that if this had happened twenty years 
ago. Lord Rockingham should have heard of it, for he 
would have taken no such usage from the first Duke in 
the land." * 

Conway had, at the instigation of the Cavendishes, 
persuaded Pitt to make this visit ; it was a final at- 
tempt to bring about some accommodation between 
Pitt and the ministerial Whigs, who were alienated by 
the dismissal of Rockingham and Richmond to make 
way for Grafton and Shelburne.f It was a great weak- 
ness of the Administration that it consisted largely of 
men whose chiefs were thus disgusted and displaced. 

There was a yet more serious weakness revealed 
before the Ministers kissed hands. Grafton depicts 
the dismay which its discovery caused to his col- 
leagues and himself. 

" Being appointed to the Queen's house, I found Lord 
Northington and Lord Camden already there. Mr. Pitt 

* Grenville Papers^ iii., 283. 

\ Walpole, Memoirs of George III,^ ii., 248-253. 



1769] The Chatham Ministry. 273 

was in with the King. The two Lords appeared to be 
in most earnest conversation, and much agitated. On 
perceiving it, I naturally was turning from them, after 
my bow ; but they begged to impart to me the subject 
of their concern, asking me whether I had any previous 
knowledge of Mr. Pitt's intention of obtaining an earldom, 
and thus placing himself in the House of Lords ; where- 
as our conception of the strength of the Administration 
had been, till that moment, derived from the great ad- 
vantage he would have given to it by remaining with the 
Commons. On this there was but one voice among us, 
nor indeed throughout the kingdom. . . . We were 
all struck with the idea of the prejudice it would do to 
his new Administration.* 

The great Commoner had decided to leave the 
House of Commons, and a strong popular outcry 
arose against what was alleged to be a desertion of 
the people. The City of London had prepared to 
illuminate their public buildings as a sign of rejoic- 
ing on his return to power, but when it was known 
that Pitt was made Earl of Chatham the orders for 
illuminations were countermanded. His colleagues 
were naturally dismayed ; they perceived that they 
had no man in the Commons who was the equal of 
Grenville, and that rivalry between Conway and 
Charles Townshend was inevitable in that assembly. 
As Chesterfield said, Chatham's enemies rejoiced 
and his friends were sad when they learned that he 
was to join the hospital for incurables. George 
Grenville pointed the analogy between the cases of 
Pulteney and Pitt, and insinuated that Bute had 

* Anson's Grafton^ p. 97. 
18 



2 74 William Pitt, [1766- 

offered the advice to George III. concerning the one 
that Walpole had offered to George II. concerning 
the other. It was a suspicious age, and the beHef 
was widely entertained that Chatliam was to be the 
tool of Bute. This loss of popularity was inevitable, 
as the people could no longer boast that Mr. Pitt 
was one of themselves, that he served the nation 
without title or reward ; yet it may safely be said 
that no peerage was ever more worthily earned, and 
that Chatham's weak health made constant attend- 
ance in the House of Commons no longer possible 
for him. He was an invalid all his life ; a high- 
strung, nervous system had been feverishly worked 
upon by his arduous and exacting labours during 
the war. He desired to return to power, but he 
must clearly have realised that office and the Com- 
mons combined were more than his strength could 
bear. He was nearly sixty years of age, and his 
constitution was broken. No doubt the pomp and 
circumstance of the peerage appealed to him, for he 
loved splendour and display, but there is nothing 
whatever in his acceptance of an earldom to warrant 
the suspicions of his contemporaries. On July 30, 
1766 — the day on which the new Ministers kissed 
hands, the peerage was gazetted. " I know the Earl 
of Chatham," wrote the King, "will zealously give 
his aid towards destroying all party distinctions, and 
restoring that subordination to government, which 
can alone preserve that inestimable blessing, liberty, 
from degenerating into licentiousness." 

Chatham plunged into matters of high policy as 
soon as he entered office. No other man of his 



1769] The Chatham Ministry. 275 

time, except perhaps Shelburne, thought very much 
about policy when engaged in negotiations about 
office, but it was always true of Chatham that if he 
desired power, it was because he would exercise it 
for noble ends. A fortnight before the King sum- 
moned him to London he wrote to Lady Stanhope 
in his grandiose style: ''Your Ladyship sees how 
the old surly English leaven, works still in a retired 
breast. Farming, grazing, haymaking, and all the 
Lethe of Somersetshire cannot obliterate the memory 
of days of activity. France is still the object of my 
mind." * English statesmen had been curiously 
oblivious of foreign politics since the peace, but 
Choiseul in France and Grimaldi in Spain had been 
ceaselessly preparing, plotting, and watching for any 
opportunity of revenge for the last war. The Bour- 
bon alliance was active and close ; exact and careful 
reports of English politics, of affairs in America, 
were regularly sent to Choiseul. The news that 
Chatham was once more in power created anxiety 
in France.f Choiseul wrote to the French Ambas- 
sador in London : 

" We cannot understand Lord Chatham's motive in 
leaving the House of Commons. To us it would seem 
that all his strength was bound up in his continuance in 
that Chamber, and he is very likely to find himself as 
weak as Samson after his locks were shorn. What we 
fear is, that this proud and ambitious man, having lost 



* Stanhope, History of England, v., app. 

f " Luckily France and Spain are unable to commence a war and 
their fear of Mr. Pitt's entry into the Ministry is quite ridiculous." 
Yorke (at The Hague) to Mitchell. Chatham Correspondence ^ iii., 42. 



276 William Pitt. [I766- 

the popular favour, may wish to recover from his fall by- 
warlike exploits and projects of conquest that will give 
him reputation. I am convinced that his quarrel with 
Lord Temple will not last." * 

Again Choiseul wrote : " My object is to avert sus- 
picion in England ; I recommend that unceasingly to 
M. de Querchy (in London) and I flatter myself I have 
arranged my plan with Spain. In 1770 we shall cer- 
tainly have a very fine army, a respectable navy and 
some money in the treasury." f Austria still inclined 
to the Bourbon party, intrigues were carried on all over 
Europe, especially in Sweden and Poland, and plans 
of acquisition were carefully prepared, as they had 
been in regard to Prussia before the last war. France 
was to obtain Avignon and Corsica, Spain to receive 
Portugal and Gibraltar, while new schemes for the 
invasion of England employed the leisure of Choi- 
seul, who was almost as ambitious as Chatham him- 
self. :j: Chatham, in fact, though he had " inflexibly 
arraigned " the peace, realised from the first that 
Great Britain must observe it, but he by no means 
intended to remain idle while Choiseul and Grimaldi 
sought alliances. 

In 1765, one of the questions asked by Pitt had 
been, Avhether his Majesty was pleased to intend a 
counter-system to be formed to the House of Bour- 
bon ; he could not serve without an answer to that. 
He avowed himself still in the Prussian Sentiment. S 



* Fitzmaurice's Shelburne, i., 412. 

\ Ibid., ii., 4. 

X See the remarks of Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, Ibid.^ ii., 1-6. 

% Rockingham Memoirs, i., 195, 196. 



1769] The Chatham Ministry. 2JJ 

The King had made no objection to this part of 
Pitt's policy, but no serious effort had been made to 
deal with the position. Now that Pitt was in office, 
France was still the object of his mind, and his first 
thought was how to strengthen the position of Great 
Britain. He attempted to create " such a firm and 
solid system in the North, as may prove a counter- 
balance to the great and formidable alliance framed 
by the House of Bourbon on the basis of the family 
compact." * The whole policy is outlined in the 
Cabinet minute : 

" Resolved, That his Majesty be advised to take the 
proper measures for forming a triple defensive alliance, 
for the maintaining of the public tranquillity, in which 
the Crown of Great Britain, the Emperor of Russia and 
the King of Prussia to be the original contracting parties ; 
with provision for inviting to accede thereto the Crowns 
of Denmark and Sweden, and the States-general together 
with such of the German or other powers as the original 
contracting parties shall agree upon, and as are not en- 
gaged in the family compact of the House of Bourbon." f 

Hans Stanley was to be sent as Ambassador. to 
Russia, with instructions to proceed first to Berlin 
and open the whole plan to Frederick. In some re- 
spects the moment was favourable for such a project ; 
Catherine the Great was allied with Prussia and 
desired a combination of the North ; she had suc- 
ceeded in overthrowing French influence in Swe- 
den, and was endeavouring to persuade Denmark to 

* Conway to Mitchell, August 8, 1766, Chatham Correspondence, 
iii., 29. 

\ Chatham Correspondence, iii., 31. 



2"]"^ William Pitt. [1766- 

depend upon Russia instead of upon France. A pro- 
ject of a defensive alliance had been sent from St. 
Petersburg to London in the previous year, but 
Russia had insisted that the casus fcederis should 
extend to a Turkish war, and that had been declared 
inadmissible by the English Ministers."^ Stanley in 
a letter to Chatham points out some of the difilicul- 
ties he anticipated. Russia, being at the head of 
affairs in the North, did not urgently need English 
assistance, and would not be likely to accept a treaty 
except on her own terms ; she might at any moment 
return to ** the old system of a close connection with 
the House of Austria, as being advantageous in dis- 
putes with the Turks" ; Frederick had strengthened 
his alliance with Russia, and he desired, even with 
jealousy, to reserve that connection exclusively to 
himself. 

In September, 1766, Frederick's Minister told Sir 
George Macartney f that '4f Russia had any intention 
of concluding a treaty with us, and admitting an ex- 
ception for Turkey, he had orders from his master to 
oppose it in the strongest manner.":]: Prussia was a 
more valuable ally to Russia than England could be, 
and the success of Chatham's scheme depended on 
Frederick. 

Frederick received the project coldly ; he hinted 
at the bad treatment he had received from Great 
Britain at the peace, and at the unsettled and fluc- 
tuating state of the British Government, and when 



* Macartney to Mitchell, July 22, 1766, Chatham Correspondence ^ 
iii,, 36-37. \ British Ambassador to Russia, 

\ Chatham Coi'respondence, iii., 36-40. 



1769] The Chatham Ministry. 279 

Mitchell assured him of Chatham's constant devotion, 
he replied, '' I fear my friend has hurt himself by 
accepting of a peerage at this time." * Frederick 
added that there were matters likely to be the occa- 
sion of a war between Great Britain and France in 
which Prussia would have no interest. An argumen- 
tative and hortatory dispatch, which bears internal 
marks of Chatham's authorship, was sent by Conway 
to Mitchell, f 

"If his Prussian Majesty is cordial, if he is dis- 
posed to this great union, we meet him more than half 
way. If he expects to be entreated, he shall know it is 
not for his Majesty's honour to go further than the step 
already taken. A continuance of hesitation will be 
looked on as a refusal." 

Frederick, however, declined the proposal. " When 
the storm seems to be rising, then, and not till then, 
is the time of uniting together, and of concerting 
measures to ward off the impending danger," he 
said to Mitchell, and as a private man he repeated 
that he could not forget the ill-usage and injustice 
he had met with at the time of making the last 
peace. '' I have a very high opinion of Lord Chat- 
ham, and great confidence in him ; but what assur- 
ances can you give me, that he has power, and will 
continue in office?":): Bute's treachery was not to 
be lightly forgiven by Frederick the Great. The 
negotiation with Russia failed on the former ground 

* Stanley to Chatham, Ibid., iii. , 70. 

\Ibid., iii., 82-84, 

^ Mitchell to Chatham, Chatham Correspondence, iii., 139. 



28o William Pitt, [1766- 

of the Turkish question, and Great Britain had se- 
cured no solid system to counterbalance the Bour- 
bons before Chatham's illness removed him from 
activity. Choiseul was successful in his patient 
diplomacy, and when the time came to strike the 
blow against England which he had so long pre- 
meditated, the enemy of France was without an ally 
in Europe. 

Another great question of State, the relation of 
the East India Company, with its vast territorial ac- 
quisitions, towards the Government, engaged Chat- 
ham's attention. Was the new Empire won during 
the war to be administered solely for the benefit of the 
trading company, its officers and shareholders? 
The years immediately following the conquests of 
Clive were undoubtedly the worst in the history of 
English government in India. The directors could 
not control their subordinates, no pressure of Eng- 
lish opinion could be felt at so great a distance, and 
the whole system was one of violence and pillage. 
Chatham held the view that the Company only 
shared with the State its right to the territorial rev- 
enues which had been granted by the subject princes. 

" As to the transcendent object, East Indian affairs, 
the consideration of the Company's right to this enorm- 
ous revenue is the source from which the whole trans- 
action must flow and the hinge upon which must turn 
the very essence of the question ; namely, whether the 
Company is to receive on this head indulgence and bene- 
fit from the public, or whether they are to impart some 
to the public." * 

"^Chatham Correspondence, iii., 199. 




FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

FROM THE ENGRAVING BY MEYER IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM PRINT ROOM. 



1769] The Chatham Ministry. 281 

The method by which Chatham proposed the 
determination of the right, was to throw responsibil- 
ity upon the Commons. Nowadays such a principle 
would be stated by the Cabinet, but Chatham em- 
phatically declined to follow what would now be the 
usual course. He employed Beckford to move for 
an inquiry into Indian affairs, which was granted 
notwithstanding opposition. 

From the committee of inquiry a declaration 
would be obtained,* 

*' {a) that it appears by the Charter, Acts, etc. that the 
East India Company was instituted for the purposes of 
trade ; (3) that the acquisitions and cessions of territories 
and revenues obtained in India for the retaking of Cal- 
cutta from the country by the Company, were made in 
consequence of actual and extensive operations of war, 
and succours stipulated." 

By this Parliamentary determination, Chatham in- 
tended to establish the public claim to a share in the 
Indian revenue. 

He had, however, wider ideas of Indian policy, 
which he expressed some years later to Shelburne, 
who understood as well as his leader the magnitude 
of the questions involved. When the East India 
Regulation Bill of 1773 was before Parliament, 
Chatham thus expressed himself upon it : 

" India teems with iniquities so rank, as to smell 
to earth and heaven. The reformation of them, if 
formed in a pure spirit of justice, might exalt the nation, 

* Fitzmaurice's Shelburne^ ii., 24, 25. 



282 William Pitt. [1766- 

and endear the English name throughout the world. 
The putting under circumspection and control the high 
and dangerous prerogative of war and alliances, so 
abused in India, I cannot but approve ; as it shuts the 
door against such insatiable rapine and detestable enorm- 
ities, as have, on some occasions, stained the English 
name and disgraced human nature. I approve, too, of 
the nomination of judges by the Crown. . . . The 
abolition of inland trade on private account is highly- 
laudable, as far as that provision goes ; but I would as- 
suredly carry the prohibition further, and open again to 
the native and other Eastern merchants the inland trade 
of Bengal, and abolish all monopolies on the Company's 
account ; which now operate to the unjust exclusion of 
an oppressed people, and to the impoverishing and 
alienating of those extensive and populous provinces. 
The hearts and good affections of Bengal are of more 
worth than all the profits of ruinous and odious mono- 
polies." * 

Although Chatham never grasped this most im- 
portant of imperial problems, in the detail of its dif- 
ficulties, these opinions of his show that his attitude 
toward the general question approached that which 
was adopted by those later statesmen who have 
gradually built up the humane and beneficent sys- 
tem of to-day. He was among the pioneers of good 
government. But in this as in his foreign policy his 
endeavours were cut short by illness, and their im- 
mediate effect was seen only in increased division 
among his colleagues ; Grafton and Shelburne agreed 
with Chatham, but Conway and Charles Townshend 

'^Chatham Correspondence, iv., 286, 287, 



1769] The Chatham Mmzshy. 283 

both believed that the Company had a sole right to 
the territorial revenues. 

On the Irish question, also, Chatham's opinions 
were in advance of his time. He would have granted 
to Ireland a much larger share of constitutional free- 
dom and political liberty than she enjoyed at that 
date. There were four points which were constantly 
agitated in Ireland : an Act to shorten the duration 
of Parliaments, which were then elected for the King's 
life; a Bill for securing the independence of judges 
by making their tenure of ofBce depend on good 
behaviour and not on the pleasure of the Crown ; a 
Habeas Corpus Act, and the grievance of the Pension 
list. " Lord Chatham," says Grafton, *' inclined to 
concede to the Irish Ministry the three or four points 
at which they previously aspired." ^ He also stipul- 
ated that the Lord Lieutenant should permanently 
reside in Ireland, not only for the brief period of 
six months in two years, a stipulation intended to 
curb the power of the Lords Justices or ** under- 
takers," who managed affairs in the Lord Lieutenant's 
absence. Towards the Irish Parliament, as towards 
the American Assemblies, he advocated what he 
himself called great tenderness, and all the softening 
and healing arts of Government consistent with its 
dignity. Thus, in 1757, during Bedford's viceroyalty, 
when the Irish Commons declined to vote supplies, 
Pitt wrote to the Duke: 

" With regard to the disagreeable but short postpon- 
ing of the supply, as an apprehension of the privilege of 

* Anson's Grafton, p. 157. 



284 William Pitt. [1766- 

the House being at stake had first raised and would have 
nourished dissatisfaction, on a common principle of Par- 
liamentary union, found at all times more comprehensive 
than any other ; your Grace's prudence, in not persever- 
ing to maintain so disadvantageous and difficult a ground, 
has met with entire approbation." * 

The same principle governed him in relation to the 
absentee tax which passed the Irish Commons, a tax 
that vi^as vehemently opposed by Burke and the 
Rockinghams, many of whom would have suffered 
under its provisions. In a letter to Shelburne, who 
was himself a great absentee Irish landlord, but 
through Chatham's influence no opponent of the tax, 
Chatham states his reason for declining to oppose 
the act of the Irish Parliament : 

" The justice or policy of the tax is not the question ; 
the single question is, have the Commons of Ireland 
exceeded the powers lodged with them by the essential 
constitution of Parliament } I answer, they have not ! 
and the interference of the British Parliament would in 
that case, be unjust, and the measure destructive of all 
fair correspondence between England and Ireland for 
ever." f 

He declined to join Rockingham in advising the 
Crown to overrule the representative Chamber in a 
matter of taxation. It was, in fact, a fundamental 
rule, which Pitt consistently observed, that supplies 
are a free grant by the Commons, and he applied this 
to the Irish Parliament in 1761, when an attempt 
was made to establish the principle that all Money 

* Chatham Correspondence, i., 286. f Ibid., iv., 320. 



1769] The Chatham Mi7iistry. 285 

Bills, even at the commencement of a new reign, 
should originate, not with the Privy Council, but 
with the representative Chamber. A severe repri- 
mand was addressed to the Irish Council. " Mr. 
Pitt alone took up the defence of the Irish Commons, 
and would not sign the message, which thirty-five 
others of the English Privy Council who were 
present signed." ^ Thus Pitt had illustrated by his 
own action as Minister the principle of his great 
speech against the Stamp Act. While there is no 
evidence in such opinions as these of a great consist- 
ent Irish policy, or even of that appreciation of the 
deeper evils existing in Ireland which Chatham's 
son displayed, they are the expression of a generous 
and liberal mind. It is remarkable that during his 
glorious quadrennium Pitt was almost as popular in 
Ireland as in Great Britain ; the Irish Parliament 
was even more devoted to his views than that of 
which he was himself member, and its members in- 
curred the displeasure of the King by omitting from 
their address all eulogy of the peace. The merchants 
and traders of Dublin expressed to Pitt their en- 
thusiastic admiration for his career, and it may be 
doubted whether any other distinctively English 
statesman has been commemorated, as he was, by a 
statue erected in his honour by the citizens of Cork, f 
With ideas such as these on foreign affairs, India 
and Ireland, Chatham might in his Ministry have 
rendered positive service to the State, in addition to 
that all-important negative service of averting the 

*Walpole's Memoirs of George III., i., 24. 
f Lecky, History of England, iv., 365. 



286 William Pitt. [1766- 

American peril. But a gloomy fate overshadowed 
the Administration from its very beginning. The 
chief Minister was, as he said, fitter for a lonely life 
in Somersetshire than for the cares of State, and his 
bad health rendered impossible that constant leader- 
ship which was necessary to keep his colleagues to- 
gether. Parliament met on November nth, and on 
this day Chatham made his first speech in the Lords. 
A bad harvest had produced great scarcity, and in 
order to prevent a further diminution of the food- 
supply Ministers had by proclamation laid an em- 
bargo on the export of corn. Such a proclamation 
was technically extra-legal, and those who acted un- 
der it subjected themselves to penalties ; Ministers 
proposed to pass an Act indemnifying the inferior 
agents, but the Opposition believed they had found 
an opportunity of damaging the Administration ; 
they declaimed against the stretching of the prerog- 
ative, and moved to include Ministers themselves in 
the proposed indemnity. Chatham began his speech 
with a characteristic and ** eloquent description of 
his feelings, from the new situation in which he 
spoke, in an unaccustomed place, before the most 
knowing in the laws, in the presence of the heredit- 
ary legislators of the realm, whilst he could not look 
upon the House without remembering that it had 
just been filled by majesty, and by all the tender 
virtues which encompass it." How different was 
this last characteristic encomium from the haughty 
address to the Speaker, '* Even that Chair, Sir, 
sometimes looks towards St. James's ! " His defence 
of the embargo was perfectly constitutional : it was 




/A.i^^«CC«l.<« •>mvt. ^ 






1769] The Chatham Ministry. 287 

an act of power justifiable before Parliament on the 
ground of necessity."^ The Opposition were right 
in compelling Ministers themselves to ask for indem- 
nification, and Chatham accepted this view. It was 
a maladroit remark of Camden's, that this was at 
worst but a " forty-days' tyranny " which increased 
popular interest in the affair, and created an opening 
for much eloquence against the prerogative from 
Mansfield, Grenville, and other warm friends of lib- 
erty. A month later the Bill of Indemnity was dis- 
cussed in the Lords, and a famous scene occurred 
between Richmond and Chatham, who at this date, 
December loth, had been harassed into a feverish 
irritabiHty by abortive negotiations with the various 
parties. 

" Lord Chatham said, that when the people should con- 
demn him, he should tremble ; but would set his face 
against the proudest connections in this country. The 
Duke of Richmond took this up with great heat and 
severity, and said, he hoped the nobility would not be 
brow-beaten by an insolent Minister. The House call- 
ing him to order, he said with great quickness, he was 
sensible truth was not to be spoken at all times, and in 
all places. Lord Chatham challenged the Duke to give 
an instance in which he had treated any man with insol- 
ence ; if the instance was not produced, the charge of 
insolence would lie on his Grace. The Duke said he 
could not name the instance without betraying private 
conversation ; and he congratulated Lord Chatham on 
his new connection, looking, as he spoke, at Lord Bute." f 

* Flood to Charlemont, Chatham Correspondence^ iii., 127. 
f Walpole's Memoirs of George III., ii., 290, 291. 



288 William Pitt. [1766- 

Richmond received credit for showing greater 
courage to Chatham's face than any member had 
ever shown in the Commons. He had " avenged 
his party at a blow," according to Walpole. It was 
beheved that Chatham w^as cowed by this imperious 
young nobleman, because he did not appear again 
in the Lords during his Ministry, and contempor- 
aries attributed Chatham's retirement from activity 
to his dread of Richmond. It is only his contemp- 
oraries who can accept theories such as that about a 
great man. Nevertheless it is certain that Chatham, 
though his greatest orations were delivered to the 
peers, never acquired the personal ascendancy over 
the Lords which he exercised at will over the Com- 
mons. **The silence of the place, and the decency 
of debate there," says Walpole, who was a connois- 
seur of oratory as of architecture, " were not suited 
to the inflammatory eloquence by which Lord Chat- 
ham had been accustomed to raise hurras from a 
more numerous auditory." The peers, for the most 
part, were cool and cynical critics ; they distrusted 
passion ; they looked with suspicion upon this man, 
who paid ornate compliments to their ancestry and 
yet spoke with haughtiness and pride and an inex- 
plicable authority. Northington prided himself on 
being no patron of the people, and he was a type of 
the new creation whom the Lords welcomed from 
the lower Chamber, but Chatham declared that 
when the people should condemn him he would 
tremble ! 

It was not, however, any failure in Parliament that 
weakened his Ministry, but a course of unfortunate 



1769] The Chatham Ministry. 289 

negotiations which took place during the autumn. 
These began with an overture from Lord Tavistock, 
on behalf of the Bedford connection, to Grafton, who 
was told that Bedford disclaimed the Grenvilles, and 
would be ready to assist on no other conditions than 
places for Lord Gower, Rigby, and Vernon.^ Chat- 
ham, however, would not offer more than the Admir- 
alty for Gower, and this was declined in a friendly 
letter.f Sir Charles Saunders was appointed. Bris- 
tol was given the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, and 
Hertford became Master of Horse, with a promise 
of the Lord Chamberlain's office ; these promotions 
urged Lord Northumberland, Bute's son-in-law, to 
insist upon a dukedom, according to a previous ar- 
rangement, which Chatham fulfilled. This, together 
with a reinstatement of Bute's brother, Stuart Mac- 
kenzie, who had been dismissed by Grenville from a 
Scottish office entirely as a slight to the King and 
Bute, gave colour to the popular suspicion that 
Chatham was in league with the favourite. As a 
matter of fact, Chatham, after Bute's retirement from 
Government, regarded him as one of the leaders of a 
connection, and he was willing to include some of 
his followers in place, in accordance with his scheme 
of uniting the various sections in one administration. 
In October, Chatham went to Bath, and then the 
negotiations with Bedford were renewed ; in a con- 
versation with Horace Walpole the Minister talked 
very frankly, declared his absolute belief in the 
King's sincerity, and said that he wished to take 

* Walpole's Memoirs of George III., ii., 252. • 
\ Anson's Grafton, p. 100. 



290 William Pitt. [1766- 

some of all parties. None the less he and Bedford 
did not come to terms, though they parted with 
friendliness, the Duke convinced that the matter 
would be arranged.* ** Not a word was spoken of the 
subject of America, nor of any arrangements. They 
parted in similar conceptions that this interview was 
merely preparatory to another ; and this accounts 
for a great part of the Bedford interest being neuter 
at the meeting of Parliament." f 

Unfortunately, when Chatham returned to Lon- 
don, he made a disastrous error, by removing Lord 
Edgcumbe from the post of Treasurer of the House- 
hold, a position he wanted for Sir John Shelley. 
Edgcumbe was offered in a discourteous way a 
Lordship of the Bedchamber, and, on his refusing 
this, was dismissed from his place. He was a favour- 
ite with the Rockinghams, and Bessborough at- 
tempted to accommodate the matter by offering to 
resign his own place, but this Chatham haughtily 
declined, as though it had been a factious proceeding. 
Edgcumbe's dismissal created the greatest indigna- 
tion and there was an exodus of leading Whigs, 
— Portland, Bessborough, Scarborough, Saunders, 
Keppel, and Meredith all resigning. The most 
influential men in the last Ministry thus formally 
joined the Opposition in the last week of November. 
Chatham was very angry, but determined to stand 
to his guns ; he relied on the firmness of the King 
and prepared to fight the factions. The negotiations 



* Walpole's Memoirs of George III., ii., 261, 262 ; Bedford Cor- 
'fespondence , iii., 348-354 ; Anson's Grafton, p. 102. 
\ Chatham Correspondence, iii., 122, quoting the Political Register, 



1769] The Chatham Ministry. 291 

with Bedford were, however, renewed. Rigby op- 
posed Beckford's motion for an inquiry into Indian 
affairs, and this made it doubtful if he ought to 
receive a place. The following day Chatham wrote 
to Grafton : 

" Unions, with whomsoever it be, give me no terrors ; 
I know my ground and I leave them to indulge their 
own Dreams. If they can conquer I am ready to fall ; 
but I shall never consent to take any premature step 
from the consideration of what Rigby 's Manoeuvres may 
produce. I doubt whether that gentleman can be ad- 
mitted . . . faction will not shake the Closet^ nor 
gain the publick . . . the Closet is firm, and there 
is nothing to fear." * 

But none the less an offer was made of a Cabinet 
ofifice for Gower and other places for Rigby and 
Weymouth. This the King called "my ultima- 
tum." f Bedford asked for more places, was refused, 
and on the next day went out of town to Woburn. 
Thus Chatham found himself opposed by both Rock- 
inghams and Bedfords, as well as by his own rela- 
tions, the Grenvilles. He needed all his own 
courage and all the King's firmness to meet so pow- 
erful a union. George III. was ready for the fray, 
and the following passage from the sovereign to his 
Minister illustrates the spirit of both. It was writ- 
ten after receiving news of Bedford's refusal to join. 

" I know the uprightness of my cause, and that my 
principal Ministers mean nothing but to aid in making 
my people happy. . . . This hour demands a due 

* Anson's Graftofi, p. 107. f Chatham Correspondence^ iv., 136. 



292 William Pitt. [1766- 

firmness ; 't is that has already dismayed all the hopes 
of those just retired, and will, I am confident, show 
the Bedfords of what little consequence they also are. 
A contrary conduct would at once overturn the very end 
proposed at the formation of the present administration ; 
for to rout out the present method of parties banding 
together, can only be obtained by a withstanding their 
unjust demands, as well as the engaging able men, be 
their private connections where they will." * 

The ability of the administration was certainly- 
increased by the appointment of Sir Edward Hawke 
to the Admiralty, though the grant of minor places 
to the King's friends added neither lustre nor credit ; 
but the primary condition of a successful contest 
with the Opposition was unanimity among the lead- 
ing Ministers themselves. There were many causes 
that divided : in the first place, Pitt's withdrawal 
from the Commons opened a wide door to the ambi- 
tion of Charles Townshend, who believed he could 
make himself First Minister, and Chatham did not 
treat Conway, the leader of the House, with that 
complete confidence which alone could give him the 
authority necessary to discomfit the brilliant and 
audacious Townshend ; again, Chatham's two most 
sincere supporters, Grafton and Shelburne, were not 
on friendly and open terms, and did not make an 
effective combination ; on the most important ques- 
tions laid before Parliament, the East India Com- 
pany, in Chatham's own words, ''a certain infelicity 
fermented and soured the councils of his Majesty's 
servants": and there was the permanent difficulty 

* Chatham Correspondence^ iii., 137. 



1769] The Chatham Ministry. 293 

that Conway and the few Rockinghamites remaining 
owned a divided allegiance. Nevertheless, if Chat- 
ham had been in full possession of his natural pow- 
ers, his authority was great enough to overcome 
these difficulties ; perhaps the most convincing of 
all testimonies paid to his greatness by those who 
associated with him was the remark of Townshend 
to Grafton after a Cabinet Council. 

" The business (writes Grafton) was on a general view 
and statement of the actual situation and interests of the 
various powers in Europe : Lord Chatham had cert- 
ainly taken the lead in this consideration in so masterly 
a manner, as to raise the admiration and desire of us all 
to co-operate with him in forwarding these views. Mr. 
Townshend was particularly astonished, and owned to 
me, as I was carrying him in my carriage home, that 
Lord Chatham had just shown to us what inferior ani- 
mals we were : and that, as much as he had seen of him 
before, he did not conceive, till that night, his superior- 
ity to be so very transcendent." * 

Such was the personal influence of Chatham when 
he was present in Council over the least tractable of 
his colleagues ; but it was dependent upon his pre- 
sence, and could not be exercised from a sick room 
at Bath. Charles Townshend " soon forgot the great 
and extensive mind of the Minister," and became 
absorbed in his two great political ambitions, a re- 
venue drawn from America and a peerage for his 
wife. 

When Parliament rose in December, Chatham 

* Anson's Grafton, p. 105. 



294 William Pitt. [1766- 

went to Bath. He was not sensible, nor would he 
be persuaded, said the most loyal of his friends, of 
the many difficulties under which his administra- 
tion laboured, though they were viewed with real 
concern by the nation at large.* On January nth, 
he set out for London, but a bad attack of gout 
compelled him to return to Bath, where he remained 
till February 15th, when he got as far as the Castle 
Inn, Marlborough. Here again he was taken ill, and 
remained in complete seclusion until the first day of 
March, when he reached London. Lord Holland 
used to tell a traditional story that when Chatham 
was at the Castle Inn, one of the greatest coaching 
houses of the old time, all the servants of the inn 
were ordered to array themselves in the Pitt livery ! 
This, however, was not the fact, but merely a surmise 
occasioned by the number of servants Chatham car- 
ried about with him on his journeys. f When he 
reached London, Chatham was met by untoward 
news. On February 27th, the Land Tax, proposed 
at the usual rate of four shillings in the pound, had 
been reduced to three on the motion of Dowdeswell 
assisted by the country gentlemen of all parties, who 
naturally welcomed a relief to the land. It was the 
first time since the Revolution that a Ministry had 
been outvoted on a Money Bill, and Townshend, the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, was blamed for his 
half-hearted support of his own measure. For his 
conduct over the Indian question, which was in de- 
clared opposition to the views of his chief, Town- 

* Anson's Grafton^ p. 109. 

f See Stanhope, Hist, of Eng., v., 176, n. 



1769] The Chatham Ministry. 295 

shend was more severely blamed. On March 4th, 
Chatham wrote to Grafton, and it was the last effort 
of his will before it relapsed into strange inertia, 
that he and Townshend could not remain in office 
together ; " or Mr. C. Townshend must amend his 
proceedings." "^ Townshend's office was offered to 
Lord North, but refused, and immediately afterwards 
Chatham's illness took a new form, "a suppressed 
gout falhng upon his nerves," and his mind was 
overclouded by gloom and melancholy that rendered 
him utterly incapable of action or decision or advice. 
If another week had been spared to him, he would 
probably have got rid of Townshend, and the his- 
tory of England and America might have been 
changed. *' From this time Chatham became invis- 
ible," writes Grafton, " even to the Lord Chancellor 
and myself; and he desired to be allowed to attend 
solely to his health, until he found himself to be 
equal to any business. Here, in fact, was the end of 
his administration." f 

The effacement of Chatham meant the rise of 
Townshend, who had all the aids which influence in 
the House of Commons can give. As Burke said, 
scarcely had one great luminary sunk beneath the 
western horizon than another appeared in the east, 
and was for his hour the lord of the ascendant. 
Talking to Grenville a fortnight after his escape from 
dismissal, Townshend jested about Chatham's invis- 
ibility. " He stated Lord Chatham in the most ridic- 
ulous light possible, showing how totally inaccessible 
he was ; in a morning, not up ; at noon, taking the 

* Anson's Grafton, p. 124. f Ibid, 



296 William Pitt. ' [1766- 

air ; in the evening, reposing, and not to be fatigued."* 
Realising that he no longer need fear the chief, and 
contemptuously disregarding others, Townshend ex- 
erted his brilliant talents to persuade the Commons 
to prolong the East Indian Company's monopoly 
and to raise a revenue from America. While the 
nominal leader lay ill at Hampstead, his policy as 
regards India was contemptuously set aside ; as re- 
gards America it was recklessly reversed. Town- 
shend was '* the child of the House," as Burke said ; 
he was sensitive to the slightest change in opinion ; 
devoid of either principle or prejudice himself, he 
was an astute reader of prejudices in others and 
knew how to express a prejudice in dignified lan- 
guage, and give it the air of a principle. The charm 
of his wit and style, his exuberant spirits and bril- 
liant talk, made him the mode and fashion of the 
hour. His character makes a striking contrast to 
that of Chatham ; both men rose to power by means 
of eloquence, and their success illustrates the good 
and evil side of a political system in which ability to 
speak well is the most profitable talent. The one 
flattered, tricked, and cajoled, was everything by 
turns and nothing long; the other dominated the 
House, and depressed all rivals by haughty and im- 
perious speech. But the result was the same, and 
influence with the Commons gave Townshend the 
power to control the Cabinet after Chatham deserted 
it, as it had given the older statesman power to force 
himself upon Newcastle. 



* Grenville Papers^ iv., 220. 



1769] The Chatham Ministry. 297 

The Rockingham settlement of the American diffi- 
culty was threatened on two sides. In Great Britain, 
though repeal of the Stamp Act was popular at the 
time, a reaction against the Americans speedily set 
in, and the desire for a revenue from the colonies 
grew stronger ; this view was supported with almost 
sinister persistence by George Grenville, and it w^as 
shared by the sovereign, the majority in Parliament, 
and a large section of the people. Among the 
colonists themselves, the outburst of gratitude that 
followed repeal spent itself quickly, and a spirit of 
general resistance to British authority began to show 
itself. It was inevitable that it should be so ; the 
Stamp Act had raised the whole question of govern- 
ment, its repeal had shown how much might be 
effected by colonial opposition, and had created a 
delusive estimate of the number and strength of 
those who supported colonial views in Great Britain. 
The army which Grenville established in America 
was one great cause of discontent ; the Americans 
obstinately declined to admit that it was necessary, 
and still more fervently declined to obey the Act 
that obliged them to provide the English troops 
with quarters, fire, and other necessaries. The As- 
sembly of New York refused to obey the Mutiny 
Act which expressed this obligation, and as a conse- 
quence the power of the Assembly was suspended 
by Act of Parliament until the Mutiny Act should 
be complied with. That was regarded by the friends 
of America in England as a mild and conciliatory 
measure, and it was not without effect. It was upon 
the larger question of commercial regulation, and 



298 William Pitt, [1766- 

the levying of external duties which was its basis, 
that more dangerous collision was threatened. At- 
tempts to enforce the revenue acts were resisted with 
violence ; the distinction between internal and exter- 
nal taxation so strenuously insisted upon when an 
internal tax was in question soon disappeared ; the 
cry of *' no representation, no taxation " was enlarged 
into "no representation, no legislation," and Dickin- 
son in the Farmer s Letters argued, with perfect 
logic, though with a rather rapid forgetfulness of that 
acknowledgment of Parliament's legislative suprem- 
acy which had accompanied the protest against the 
Stamp Act, that *' an Act of Parliament commanding 
to do a certain thing, if it has any validity, is a tax 
upon us for the expense that accrues in complying 
with it." How great an effect upon English opinion 
was created by the advance in American pretensions 
is clear from what Chatham, of all men the most in- 
clined to defend and admire the colonists, wrote to 
Lord Shelburne on hearing of resistance to the 
Mutiny Act and of the objections taken to the com- 
mercial regulations. 

" America affords a gloomy prospect. A spirit of infat- 
uation has taken possession of New York : their dis- 
obedience to the Mutiny Act will justly make a great 
ferment here, open a fair field to the arraigners here, 
and leave no room to any to say a word in their defence. 
I foresee confusion will ensue. The petition of the mer- 
chants of New York is highly improper : in point of time 
most absurd ; in the extent of their pretensions, most 
excessive ; and in the reasoning most grossly fallacious 
and offensive. . . . They are doing the work of 



1769] The Chatham Ministry. 299 

their worst enemies themselves. The torrent of indig- 
nation in Parliament will, I apprehend, become irresist- 
ible, and they will draw upon their heads national 
resentment by their ingratitude, and ruin, I fear upon 
the whole state, by the consequence." * 

Again, four days later, he wrote: "It is a literal 
truth to say that the Stamp Act, of most unhappy 
memory, has frightened these irritable and umbra- 
geous people quite out of their senses." f He ad- 
vised that the New York petition should be laid 
before the House, and not be smothered in the 
hands of the King's servants. 

It is clear, if Chatham blamed American infatua- 
tion, how incensed and outraged must have been that 
large number of politicians who had never sympa- 
thised with the colonists. Townshend perceived 
this, and determined to raise a revenue by duties on 
articles imported into the colonies, which duties were 
to be collected at the American ports. The articles 
selected were paper, tea, glass, lead, and painters' 
colours, and it was estimated the new duties would 
produce forty thousand pounds a year, which would 
enable the Crown to pay the salaries of Governors 
and Judges, and so render those officers independent 
of the Assemblies. A Board of Commissioners was 
appointed by the Crown to superintend the trade 
laws, and the writs of assistance were formally legal- 
ised. At the same time Townshend, following 
Grenville, freed tea, coffee, and cocoa, which were 
sent to America via England, from the import duty 

* Chatham Corr., iii., i88, 189. \ Ibid., iii., 193. 



300 William Pitt. [1766- 

into England, with the result that the colonists act- 
ually bought these articles more cheaply than Eng- 
lishmen. There was a superficial cleverness in 
seizing upon the difference between external and 
internal taxation, but the policy combined the most 
irritating and provocative qualities with an almost 
ludicrous want of financial ingenuity. If the duties 
had been levied at the English port of embarkation, 
they would probably have been paid without demur. 
Political unwisdom never risked greater disasters for 
so small a benefit, or hazarded a nobler empire for 
so penurious a revenue. 

Townshend carried his budget in May, two months 
after Chatham's breakdown. During these months 
both Shelburne and Grafton, though they differed 
from one another, earnestly sought the aid and advice 
of their absent chief. To their entreaties, George III. 
added his own, yet all were in vain. Chatham sent 
his proxy to Grafton for use in the Lords, "^ but re- 
peated that he could see no one on business. On 
May 30th, the King was so alarmed by small major- 
ities of six and three on previous days in the House 
of Lords, that he wrote to Chatham, almost implor- 
ing him to see Grafton. 

" Your duty and affection for my person, your own 
honour, call on you to make an effort : five minutes' con- 
versation with you would raise his spirits, for his heart 
is good ; mine, I thank Heaven, wants no rousing : my 
love to my country, as well as what I owe to my own 
character and to my family, prompt me not to yield to 
faction." f 

* Anson's Grafton, p. 133. -j- Chatham Corr,, iii., 261. 



1769] The Chatham Ministry. 301 

To this, Chatham replied : *' Penetrated and over- 
whelmed with your Majesty's letter and the bound- 
less extent of your royal goodness, totally incapable 
as illness renders me, I obey your Majesty's com- 
mands, and shall beg to see the Duke of Grafton 
to-morrow." The following day, Grafton went out 
to Hampstead, and his memoirs contain his account 
of the interview. 

" Though I expected to find Lord Chatham very ill 
indeed, his situation was different from what I had im- 
agined ; his nerves and spirits were affected to a dread- 
ful degree ; and the sight of his great mind bowed 
down, and thus weakened by disorder, would have filled 
me with grief and concern, even if I had not borne a 
sincere attachment to his person and ^character. The 
confidence he reposed in me, demanded every return 
on my part ; and it appeared like cruelty in me to have 
been urged by any necessity to put a man I valued to so 
great suffering as it was evident that my commission ex- 
acted. The interview was truly painful : I had to run 
over the many difficulties of the Session : for his lord- 
ship, I believe, had not once attended the House, since 
his last return from Bath. I had to relate the struggles 
we had experienced . . . the opposition also which we 
had encountered in the East India business from Mr. 
Conway, as well as Mr. Townshend ; together with the 
unaccountable conduct of this latter gentleman, who had 
suffered himself to be led to pledge himself at last, con- 
trary to the known decision of every member of the 
Cabinet, to draw a certain revenue from the Colonies 
without offence to the Americans themselves : and I 
was sorry to inform Lord Chatham that Mr. Towns- 
hend's flippant boasting was received with strong marks 



302 William Pitt, [1766-1769] 

of a blind and greedy approbation from the body of the 
House." 

Chatham entreated Grafton himself to remain, as- 
sured him that Shelburne was loyal, which both 
George III. and Grafton doubted, and advised him 
if a junction with the Bedfords or Rockinghams be- 
came necessary, to negotiate with the former."^ This 
preference for the Bedfords, who were passionate in 
their hostility to the Americans, is one of the 
strangest features in Chatham's opinions and career. 

This was his last official intervention in politics ; 
he did not see Grafton again for two years, he had 
no part or lot in the administration, and only re- 
tained office because the King told him his name 
kept the Ministry together. The mysterious 
malady grew worse ; he would remain all day 
seated at a table with his head bowed and his face 
covered ; the slightest noise racked his nerves, and 
the very mention of politics so agitated him that his 
whole body trembled. Nearly forty years later, 
when he could look back over those momentous 
events that sprang from the acts of this year, Graf- 
ton, who knew ministerial politics at this time 
better than any other man, wrote : " I shall ever 
consider Lord Chatham's illness, together with his 
resignation, as the most unhappy event that could 
have befallen our political state. ... I must think 
that the separation from America might have been 
avoided." f 

* Anson's Grafton^ pp. 136-138. f Ibid.^ 225. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE OPPOSITION TO PREROGATIVE. 

1 770-1772. 

CHATHAM remained withdrawn from public 
life for more than two years. In January, 
1768, he desired to resign his office, but the 
King wrote to him : '' I am thoroughly convinced 
of the utility you are of to my service ; for though 
confined to your house, your name has been 
sufficient to enable my administration to proceed. 
I therefore in the most earnest manner, call on you 
to continue in your employment."^ The Privy 
Seal was put into commission for nine weeks, but it 
was not until October 14, 1768, that Chatham's 
resignation was accepted. The King, Grafton, and 
Camden entreated him to remain, and George III. 
wrote, "As you entered upon employment in 
August, 1766, at my own requisition, I think I have 
a right to insist on your remaining in my service ; 
for I with pleasure look forward to the time of your 
recovery, when I may have your assistance in re- 
sisting the torrent of Factions this country so much 

* Chatham Correspondence y iii., 318. 

303 



304 William Pitt. [1770- 

labours under." "^ Even this failed to move the 
Minister, who never again took arms for the King 
against the ^'torrent of Factions." The dismissal of 
Lord Shelburne, and the removal of Sir Jeffrey Am- 
herst from the Governorship of Virginia, were men- 
tioned by Chatham to Grafton as matters he 
disapproved, and the paramount power which the 
Bedford connection had by this date secured in the 
administration cannot have been a pleasing object 
of contemplation. During the spring of 1769 his 
powers returned to him, the cloud of gloom that had 
so long depressed his mind was dissipated, and he 
signalised his return to active life by a visit to St. 
James's, which created many surmises and con- 
jectures, and no inconsiderable alarm, among the 
political classes. It was a different world from that 
which he had left, and the various connections, con- 
scious that Chatham's personality, a for.ce of known 
power though of uncertain tendency, must affect 
the equilibrium of parties, waited with some anxiety 
for a declaration of his purpose. Immediately after 
resigning the Privy Seal he had been reconciled with 
Lord Temple, who at this moment was delighting in 
the unusual opportunities of intrigue, patriotism, 
and agitation afforded by the struggle between 
Wilkes and the House of Commons. Temple, as he 
once candidly stated, loved faction and had money 
to spare ; he was a great master in the art of creat- 
ing a boisterous public opinion, and though he did 
not direct the whirlwind, he rode triumphantly in 
its midst. He rejoiced that the animating eloquence 

* Chatham Correspondence^ iii., 343. 



1772] The Opposition to Prerogative. 305 

of Chatham might again be heard in Parhament, and 
might yet further increase the popular excitement. 
Grafton was still head of a Government whose 
measures he almost invariably disapproved, whose 
members were uncongenial ; his intellect was too 
keen to ignore mistakes, but his will was too weak 
to coerce a colleague, his nature too indolent to 
frame a policy. From a desire to oblige the King, 
he retained office, and justified his ministerial ex- 
istence to himself and to his son on the ground that 
he was marking time until Chatham should return. 
The complexion of the Ministry was changed, and 
only Grafton, Granby, and Camden remained as the 
representatives of Lord Chatham's friends ; Charles 
Townshend was dead, and Lord North ruled the 
Treasury in his stead, Northington and Conway had 
resigned, though the latter remained in the Cabinet 
without office until January, 1770. Shelburne had 
been in effect dismissed. There was a moment in 
1767 when a general combination of parties seemed 
possible, when Bedford and Rockingham met to de- 
cide upon a division of offices that might conciliate 
all sections; but the two chiefs split upon the ques- 
tion of who should lead the Commons, Rockingham 
declaring for Conway, and Bedford announcing that 
he and Mr. Grenville were one. In those negotia- 
tions it is worthy of remark that Rockingham *' was 
more against Lord Chatham than against any 
other."* At the close of 1767, places were found 
for Gower, Weymouth, who became Secretary of 
State, and Sandwich, so that a compact body of 

* Grenville Papers^ iv. , 66. 

29 



3o6 William Pitt. [1770- 

the Bedfords obtained an entrance into the Govern- 
ment, while a newly created Secretaryship for Amer- 
ica was given to Lord Hillsborough. Shelburne was 
wholly at variance with these new colleagues on 
grounds of policy, as with Grafton on personal 
grounds ; he was goaded into resignation in Octo- 
ber, 1768, and was succeeded by Lord Rochford. 
The Ministry as then constituted was not out of 
sympathy with the obstinate assertion of prerog- 
ative, the manipulation of constitutional forms into 
instruments of the royal will, which was the absorb- 
ing passion of George IIL at this time. The King 
was still " the most efficient man among them," as 
Mansfield had declared him to be in 1767, and the 
clue to the confused struggle between the Commons 
and the people, as well as to events connected with 
America, is to be found in the stubborn determina- 
tion of the sovereign. Mansfield in these years was 
the confidential adviser of the throne ; his luminous 
mind evolved arguments on behalf of many bad 
causes ; he was in fact the only politician of great in- 
tellect who could be found to oppose the cause of 
Chatham and Burke, and was treasured accordingly. 
Talking to Lyttleton at the end of 1767, he said that 
" unless that madman Chatham should come and 
throw a fire-ball in the midst of them, he thought 
Ministers would stand their ground." It is not dif- 
ficult to imagine with what feelings he received the 
news of Chatham's recovery in 1769. The senti- 
ments of the Rockingham Whigs are shown by the 
famous sarcasm of Burke : " If he has not been sent 
for (to the levee), Chatham went only humbly to lay 




Copyright Sir Benjamin Stone. 

STATUE OF LORD MANSFIELD, ST. STEPHEN'S HALL, WESTMINSTER. 

BY E. H. BAILEY, R.A. 



1772] The Oppositio7i to Prerogative, 307 

a reprimand at the feet of his most gracious master, 
and to talk some significant pompous creeping ex- 
planatory matter in the true Chathamic style, and 
that 's all." "^ In his interview, which was the last 
that took place between Chatham and himself, the 
King was very gracious, but Chatham took occasion 
to declare his dissent from some proceedings of the 
Ministry, especially in regard to Wilkes and to the 
East India Company. 

"His lordship added that he doubted whether his 
health would ever again allow him to attend Parliament, 
but if it did, and if he should give his dissent to any 
measure, that His Majesty would be indulgent enough to 
believe that it would not arise from any personal consid- 
eration, for he protested to His Majesty, as Lord Chat- 
ham he had not a tittle to find fault with in the conduct 
of any one individual ; and that His Majesty might be 
assured that it could not arise from ambition, as he felt 
so strongly the weak state from which he was recovering, 
and which might daily threaten him, that office there- 
fore of any sort could no longer be desirable to him." 

Happy would it have been if the King had re- 
membered this conversation, and had believed that 
the words of warning which fell from Chatham's lips 
were more worthy of attention because they came 
from a man who had already won the highest dis- 
tinction the State could offer, and was forbidden by 
age and infirmity to think again of office or reward. 
These last years of Chatham's life were full of stren- 
uous resistance, of a passionate and splendid oratory 

* Rockingham Memoirs^ ii., 140. 



3o8 William Pitt. [1770- 

that was exerted in vain, of an opposition unavailing 
indeed for its immediate ends but so true in its aims 
and methods to the deepest truths of politics, so 
noble in its display of energy and power, so pathetic 
in its closing scene, that it must be ever remembered 
as an achievement illustrating the history of Parlia- 
ment. But this resistance was an effort that George 
III. could not forgive, and whatever liking he pos- 
sessed for Chatham passed rapidly into suspicion 
and dread, until before a decade was ended, it was 
transformed into a sinister hatred. 

Notwithstanding Burke's disparagement, it was 
with the Rockingham party that Chatham now en- 
tered into alliance, an alliance that was never very 
cordial, although it continued, in form at least, until 
the eve of his death. The Duke of Portland wrote 
to Rockingham on December 3, 1769, an account 
of an interview some politician had obtained with 
Chatham, which details a very characteristic picture. 

" He found him just recovered from an attack of the 
gout, but high in spirits, and in fury. He, Lord Chat- 
ham, said that he was domestically happy, but that public 
affairs were too blank to give anybody comfort ; that 
the conduct of some persons in Administration had sur- 
prised him ; that he knows not what infatuation has 
produced such a situation of affairs. He says that he 
united body and soul with Lord Rockingham and Sir 
George Savile in their measures (meaning, I suppose, the 
Middlesex election) ; that he thinks Sir George the most 
virtuous character in this country, and bows to his con- 
stitutional a?id private integrity ; that he will go hand in 
hand with Lord Rockingham and his friends, who are, 



1772] The Opposition to Prerogative. 309 

and have proved themselves to be, the only true Whigs 
in this country. ^ Fori?ter little differences must be for- 
gotten when the co?itest is pro aris et focis. The prepara- 
tions of France and Spain are truly alarming. But, Sir, if 
they were to land on the coast of Sussex to-morrow, we 
will not stir a step to oppose them, till this deep wound 
in our constitution is healed. Sir, I had rather be a 
slave to France than to a fellow subject.' 'Then, my 
Lord,* said the visitor, * I suppose you think the Parlia- 
ment may probably be dissolved ? ' ' May, sir ? It must, 
it shall be dissolved.' " * 

It was as a struggle /r<? aris et focis that Chatham 
entered into Opposition ; he regarded any attempt 
to supersede constitutional liberty with fiery and 
passionate indignation, and his utterances against 
such a policy, extreme though they were, never 
went further than the action he was prepared, if 
necessary, to take. His strenuous eloquence and 
unconventional proposals often alarmed and discon- 
certed Rockingham, whose mind was of correct and 
moderate tone. The archetypal Whig shuddered at 
any hint of revolution, whereas Chatham would 
have mounted a barricade. To apply the phrase of 
Heine, Rockingham loved liberty as his wedded 
wife, to whom he owed a decorous conjugal respect, 
but to Chatham liberty was a mistress, the dedicated 
object of an ardent passion. This difference of tem- 
perament was at the bottom of many disagreements, 
and each leader showed the defects of his qualities 
at various times. Chatham was sullen under the 
moderation of Rockingham, and declared that he 

"^Rockingham Memoirs, ii., 143. 



3IO William Pitt. [1770- 

would be '' a scarecrow of violence among the gentle 
warblers of the grove." No phrase could more ex- 
actly express the impression which he produced 
upon the Whigs. There were other causes of inter- 
rupted harmony, but, notwithstanding all such diffi- 
culties, the aims of the Rockinghams and of 
Chatham, in regard to both America and domestic 
questions, were so nearly identical that the alliance 
was never formally broken. 

In this connection one incident which brings two 
great names into conjunction must be mentioned. 
Burke published, in 1770, his famous pamphlet on 
the Present Discontents, which was a glowing eulogy 
on the Rockinghamites, an implied censure on Chat- 
ham, and an explicit condemnation of George Gren- 
ville, who was compared to the Spirit of Envy. At 
this moment Rockingham, Chatham, and Grenville 
were endeavouring to unite themselves in Opposition, 
and the admirable invective of Burke was unlikely 
to promote a warm friendship between Grenville 
and Burke's patron. Chatham wrote to Rockingham 
a letter of remonstrance, in which he said that the 
pamphlet had done much hurt to the cause. In an 
honest Opposition it is highly fit that there should be 
a variety of opinions, but '' in the wide and exten- 
sive public, the whole alone can save the whole 
against the desperate designs of the Court." More 
than twenty years later Burke saw this letter again, 
and endorsed on the back of it a vitriolic note. " I 
remember to have seen this knavish letter at the 
time. The pamphlet is itself, by anticipation, an 
answer to that grand artificer of fraud. He would not 



1772] The Opposition to Prerogative. 3 1 1 

like it. It is pleasant to hear him talk of the great 
extensive public, who never conversed but with a par- 
cel of toad-eaters. Alas ! alas ! how different the real 
from the ostensible public man ! Must all this the- 
atrical stufBng and raised heels be necessary for the 
character of a great man ? " Then follows the char- 
acteristic reaction against so violent an outbreak. 
'* Oh ! but this does not derogate from his great, 
splendid side, God forbid ! " * Chatham's failings 
were peculiarly irritating to Burke, and though he 
was conscious of the other's greatness and celebrated 
it in some passages of noble praise, Burke's influence 
undoubtedly tended to prevent a complete under- 
standing and union between Chatham and Rock- 
ingham. 

Chatham was eager for the fray and attended in 
the House of Lords when Parliament met in Janu- 
ary, 1770. The great question of the hour was that 
of the Middlesex election, and Chatham's speeches 
produced an immediate effect. Camden made a 
dramatic recantation of all responsibility for what 
the Ministry had done in regard to both America 
and the Middlesex election, and his resignation of 
the seals became imperative. Lord Granby joined 
in this protest, and also resigned. Thus the two 
most popular Ministers, who had never wavered in 
their allegiance to Chatham's principles, though 
their conduct towards Chatham himself had not 
been so plainly loyal as that of Shelburne, returned 
to his side and Grafton was left in solitude among 
the Bedfords. After some attempts to fill the 

'^Rockingham Memoirs, ii., 193-195. 



312 William Pitt. [1770- 

vacant places he himself resigned, Lord North 
became chief Minister, and the administration as- 
sumed the definitive shape which it retained till 
Chatham's death. Of all the administrations 
throughout his reign this was most clearly ruled by 
George III.; it was the King's friends who gave 
Lord North his majority, it was the King's will 
that kept Lord North faithful to a policy which 
in secret he disliked and distrusted. The sovereign's 
narrow mind, the Minister's complaisance, the native 
insolence of Sandwich and Weymouth stamped 
their characteristics upon the Government which 
was destined to confront the gravest crisis in the 
history of the British Empire. 

Many important constitutional questions were 
agitated at this time. At the general election of 
1768, Wilkes had returned to his career as a practi- 
cal politician, and had been elected as one of the 
members for Middlesex. It will be remembered 
that on his flight to France he had been outlawed, 
and this outlawry was now reversed by Mansfield on 
a technical point. Wilkes, however, had been con- 
demned for sedition, libel, and blasphemy, and on 
surrendering to receive sentence upon this charge 
he was ordered to pay ;^iooo and to be imprisoned 
for twenty-one months. He was more than ever a 
popular favourite, and his imprisonment produced 
many riots in London, notably one in St. George's 
Fields, where some Scottish soldiers accidentally 
killed an innocent man. This incident created much 
indignation and disorder, the greater because Scot- 
tish soldiers were impHcated. Weymouth, the Sec- 



1772] The Opposition to Prerogative. 313 

retary of State, had before the riot written to the 
magistrates urging them not to hesitate about em- 
ploying the military, and Wilkes secured a copy of 
this letter which he published with a characteristic 
preface charging Weymouth with having planned 
and determined upon the massacre of St. George's 
Fields. George III., at the beginning of the new 
Parliament, had written Lord North that "■ the ex- 
pulsion of Mr. Wilkes appears to be highly expedient 
and must be effected," and the Minister resolved to 
take advantage of this pubhcation of Weymouth's 
letter and make it a ground for expulsion. Wilkes 
was summoned to the bar ; he admitted and gloried 
in the preface to Weymouth's letter, which was de- 
termined by resolution of the House to be an " in- 
solent libel." The House then assumed the functions 
of a judicial court, and declared that Wilkes, being 
guilty of libel in the famous No. 45, of blasphemy 
in publishing the Essay on Woman, and of libel 
against Lord Weymouth, should be expelled from 
the House. Technically the House of Commons 
were infringing no principle of law in decreeing the 
expulsion, though they were contravening policy and 
common-sense, but after the expulsion Wilkes was 
re-elected for Middlesex, and the House then re- 
solved that, having been expelled, Wilkes was inca- 
pable of being returned to the same Parliament. 
This imposed a positive disqualification on Wilkes, 
and disfranchisement on the freeholders of Middle- 
sex, measures involving an alteration of the law 
which could only legally be accomplished by Act of 
Parliament, not by a resolution of either House. 



314 William Pitt. [1770- 

Wilkes was again re-elected unanimously, and again 
his incapacity was declared. At length a way out 
of the difficulty was discovered ; Colonel Luttrell 
opposed Wilkes, received 296 votes to 1143 given 
for Wilkes, and was solemnly declared by the Com- 
mons to be the duly elected member for Middlesex. 
This gross breach of the legal rights of electors 
created the wildest excitement in London and 
throughout the country. Immediately after Lut- 
trelFs election Parliament was adjourned, but 
throughout the recess the popular protest gained 
strength, and when Chatham spoke on the subject 
in the House of Lords he was conscious that public 
opinion supported his views. 

The debate in the Lords was a brilliant duel be- 
tween Chatham and Mansfield, and there is no other 
speech of Chatham's which displays so great a power 
of close and subtle reasoning. His first speech con- 
cluded with an amendment to the address by which 
the House was asked to take into serious considera- 
tion the causes of the discontent in so many parts of 
his Majesty's dominions, and 

" particularly the late proceedings of the House of Com- 
mons, touching the incapacity of John Wilkes, Esq., ex- 
pelled by that House, to be elected as a member to serve 
in this present Parliament, thereby refusing, by a resolu- 
tion of one branch of the legislature only, to the subject 
his common right, and depriving the electors of Middle- 
sex of their free choice of a representative." 

Mansfield opposed the amendment. With an affect- 
ation of mystery that was a constant peculiarity of 



1772] The Opposition to Prerogative. 315 

his character, he declared that his own opinion 
whether the proceedings of the Commons were legal 
or not " should be locked up in his own breast, or 
should die with him " ; but he argued that such 
House of Parliament was the sole judge of its own 
privileges, that any question touching the seat of a 
member in the Lower House could only be determ- 
ined by that House, that there could be no appeal 
from this decision, and that it was an infringement 
of the Commons' privileges for the Lords to inquire 
into proceedings with respect to members of the 
House of Commons. '' Wherever the statute law 
was silent, he knew not where to look for the law of 
Parliament, or for a definition of the privileges of 
either House, except in the proceedings and deci- 
sions of each House respectively." If the Commons 
have erred, there is no remedy except a new Act of 
Parliament. Chatham spoke again in reply to Mans- 
field : *' Nothing less than the genius of penetration 
could have discovered any obscurity in his amend- 
ment. . . . What is this mysterious power, undefined 
by law, unknown to the subject, which we must not 
approach without awe, nor speak of without rever- 
ence, which no man may question, and to which all 
men must submit ? " If there is no law to direct the 
House of Commons but their own wisdom, if their 
decision is law, we have but exchanged the arbitrary 
power of a King for the arbitrary power of a House 
of Commons. 

*' Tyranny is detestable In every shape ; but In none so 
formidable as when it is assumed and exercised by a 
number of tyrants. But we have a law of Parliament, 



3i6 William Pitt. [1770- 

we have a code in which every honest man may find it. 
We have a Magna Charta, we have the Statute Book, 
and the Bill of Rights." 

The decision of the House of Commons makes the 
representative the constituent body ; it is contrary 
to Magna Charta because it deprives the elector of 
his freehold vote without either the judgment of his 
peers or the law of the land. This argument was 
enforced by a famous passage of eloquence, in which 
the silken barons of the day were adjured to imitate 
the iron barons of Runnymede.* 

Chatham afterwards adopted Mansfield's advice 
and brought in a Bill, reciting those resolutions 
passed by the House of Commons which stated the 
incapacity of Wilkes and the return of Luttrell, and 
declaring '* That all the adjudications contained in 
the above-mentioned several resolutions are arbitrary 
and illegal, and the same are and shall be hereby re- 
versed, annulled, and made void to all intents and pur- 
poses whatsoever." f The Lords rejected the second 
reading by eighty-nine to forty-three. He also moved 
for an address to the King praying for an immediate 
dissolution, on the ground that the people had lost 
their confidence in the House of Commons. This mo- 
tion had been the object of correspondence between 
Rockingham and himself, and Rockingham expressed 
the opinion that it '' was not particularly called for," 
and that his friends would not welcome it. Chatham 
replied that the idea of moving it sprang more from 

* Chatham Correspondence, iii., 383, n. This speech is one of 
those reported by Sir Philip Francis. 
f Ibid,^ iii., 449-451. 



1772] The Opposition to Prerogative. 317 

himself than from the suggestion of others. "• I 
think it for our honour, and in prudence indispens- 
able, to seek every occasion to let the people see 
we demand dissolution, and the Crown know, by 
perpetual reiteration, that we will never acquiesce 
without it." * No record of the debate has been 
preserved, but the motion was negatived without a 
division. How far it is constitutional to move for a 
dissolution in the Lords is a question that might 
tempt a casuist, but the motion was an illustration 
of Chatham's favourite theory that the Lords are the 
hereditary councillors of the throne, and may advise 
the Crown on any matter. The Crown, it is at least 
certain, is under no obligation to adopt any advice 
that may be so offered. 

In the many debates which followed on this sub- 
ject Chatham's powers of invective were displayed 
with a touch of extravagance. The question in fact 
had been thoroughly argued, and the subsequent 
speeches were intended to arouse popular opinion, 
to intimidate Ministersrather than to convince them. 
But when Grafton had resigned there was no promi- 
nent man in the administration whose conscience 
was easily aroused, who could be accused of either 
scruple or timidity. The House of Lords was not 
awed by Chatham as the Commons had been awed 
by Pitt, although this struggle brought forth some of 
his most famous utterances. These were c4iaracter- 
ised by passion, impetuosity, and utter lack of cau- 
tion or reserve, and at times it must be confessed by 
recklessness of statement and abuse. " If the breach 



* Chatham Corr.^ 455-457 ; Rockingham Memoirs, ii., 181-184. 



3i8 William Pitt. [1770- 

in the constitution be effectually repaired, the people 
will of themselves return to a state of tranquillity — 
if not — may discord prevail for ever" — so he ex- 
claimed with a monarch's voice. *' Rather than the 
nation should surrender their birthright to a despotic 
Minister, I hope, my Lords, old as I am, I shall see 
the question brought to issue, and fairly tried be- 
tween the people and Government." On another 
occasion he quoted Lord Somers and Chief Justice 
Holt, and drew their characters very finely. He 
called them honest men, who knew and loved the 
English Constitution. Then, turning to Lord Mans- 
field, he said with a sneer, *' I vow to God I think 
the noble Lord equals them both in abilities." 
Mansfield in fact was the object of Chatham's par- 
ticular attention, and a story is told by Grattan that 
illustrates the directness of Chatham's personal at- 
tacks, and also that disregard of the rules of order in 
which no other member of Parliament ever equalled 
him. ''Who," he asked, "are the evil advisers of 
his Majesty? I would say to them, Is it you? Is it 
you? Is it you ? (pointing to the Ministers, until 
he came near Lord Mansfield). There were several 
Lords around him, and Lord Chatham said, " My 
Lords, please to take your seats." When they had 
sat down, he pointed to Lord Mansfield, and said„ 
"Is it you ? Methinks Felix trembles^ 

It was in his adoption of the Bute legend that 
Chatham's speeches displayed some symptoms of 
an unbalanced mind. Recounting the failure of his, 
last Ministry, he declared that he had been duped, 
that some secret influence was at work dividing 



1772] The Opposition to Prerogative, 319 

his colleagues one from the other, that from his 
Majesty he had received nothing but kindness, but 
that there was a power behind the throne greater 
than the throne itself. " Who has not heard 
of the Mazarinade of France ? " Mazarin had 
still governed France though exiled from the 
French Court, and Bute, he hinted, was still exercis- 
ing his baneful and malignant influence, still pois- 
oning the mind of Majesty. This extraordinary 
belief was held by many others besides Chatham, 
but in the innumerable papers relating to the politics 
of that time there is little evidence that Bute's influ- 
ence over the King continued, and there is abundant 
evidence that the sovereign himself was the fountain 
and origin of much that was attributed to Bute. 
The admirers of the George III. who confronted 
Napoleon would willingly accept the theory that the 
George III. who lost America was but the creature 
of a designing Minister, but unhappily no grounds for 
that belief can be discovered. Chatham believed 
that Bute sold England at the peace, but no credible 
evidence for that grave charge was ever given, though 
Camden continued till the end of his life to repeat 
it. The constant intrigues among politicians of the 
eighteenth century naturally induced a habit of 
suspicion, and the simplest actions were examined 
as if they were subtle and tortuous plots. In this 
respect Chatham was the man of his age. He de- 
corated a negotiation for ofifice with the pomp of 
diplomacy, and conducted a conversation with the 
circumspection of an intrigue. This trick of suspicion, 
which is usually the characteristic of small minds, 



320 William Pitt. ti770- 

was the feature of Chatham's character to which his 
acceptance of the Bute legend must be ascribed. 

If this feature of Chatham's character cannot be 
overlooked by any biographer, it must be remem- 
bered that in his case it was compatible with the 
keenest sagacity in the sphere of practical affairs. 
He possessed the valuable instinct of scenting dif- 
ficulties ahead, the power so indispensable to poli- 
ticians of judging a proposal not only on abstract 
merits, but in the light of the effects its acceptance 
will produce. Like Walpole, he had refused to tax 
the American colonies. When Lord George Sack- 
ville declined to charge at Minden, George II. pressed 
for his expulsion from the House of Commons, but 
Pitt pointed out that, if he were re-elected, the House 
would be placed in a very difficult position, and de- 
cHned to adopt the King's suggestion. This Grafton 
rightly instanced as an illustration of political fore- 
sight. Chatham's opinions on the contest between 
the House of Commons and the printers are a further 
proof of his possession of this quality. He admitted 
that the House was within its rights in committing 
certain printers who had reported its proceedings, but 
he did not share the opinion that reporting could be 
to the detriment of the Commons. " Where is the 
injury, if the members act upon honest principles? 
For a public assembly to be afraid of having their 
deliberations published is monstrous, and speaks for 
itself." But when in the subsequent dispute with 
the City the Lord Mayor condemned the messenger 
of the House of Commons, who had arrested one of 
the printers within the precincts without obtain- 



1772] The Opposition to Prerogative. 321 

ing the signature of a magistrate to the Speaker's 
warrant, as the charter provided must be done to 
make an arrest in the City legal, Chatham's view 
of the situation was an essentially practical one. He 
thought the Lord Mayor censurable for interference 
with the servant of the House of Commons, even 
though he were defending the charter, but " to 
go further than bruta parliamentaria fulmina^ noise 
without effect, would be neither wise nor becoming." 
The majority of the House thought differently from 
Chatham and they committed the Lord Mayor to 
the tower, though they carefully refrained from attack- 
ing Wilkes, who was the true instigator of the city 
measures. Ministers had in fact, as Chatham truly 
said, " brought themselves and their master where 
ordinary inability never arrives, and nothing but first- 
rate geniuses in incapacity can reach ; I mean, a 
situation wherein there is nothing they can do which 
is not a fault." * Fortunately the salutary rule that 
prisoners committed by the House are freed when 
the session ends rescued the House from their di- 
lemma, and the Lord Mayor was prevented through 
his release from becoming an even more dangerous 
martyr than Wilkes himself. The Commons went so 
far as to expunge the statement of their messenger 
being admitted to bail by the Lord Mayor from the 
record of the City Court. This, said Chatham, was 
the act of a mob and not of a Parliament. 

Naturally enough, the tyrannising exercise of their 
power by the Commons, and the riotous discontent 
and confusion it produced in London and the country 

* Chatham Correspondence., iv., 119. 

2X 



32 2 William Pitt, 



[1770 



at large, turned the minds of men to various political 
remedies for a Parliamentary constitution that ap- 
peared disgraced. Chatham eagerly canvassed most 
of the remedies suggested. The House of Commons, 
he said, had converted government into a scufHe 
with a single individual; they had become both odious 
and contemptible. 

" The influence of the Crown Is become so enormous, 
that some stronger bulwark must be erected for the de- 
fence of the constitution. The act for constituting 
septennial Parliaments must be repealed. Formerly the 
inconveniences attending short Parliaments had great 
weight with me ; but now we are not debating upon a 
question of inconvenience : our all is at stake ; our 
whole constitution is giving way ; and therefore, with 
the most deliberate and solemn conviction, I declare 
myself a convert to triennial Parliaments.'* 

This was an important declaration, as it brought 
Chatham more closely into touch with the demo- 
cratic wing of the Opposition, to whose organisation 
in 1769 as the supporters of the Bill of Rights Mr. 
Lecky traces the origin of English Radicalism. It 
must, however, be read in connection with the plan 
for Parliamentary reform which Chatham advocated, 
and read in that connection the great difference sep- 
arating him from the democrats is clear. They 
believed in what was then called personal represent- 
ation, which involved sooner or later universal 
suffrage, but Chatham never adopted that idea. 
" Representation is not of person but of property, 
and in this light there is scarcely a blade of grass 



1772] The Opposition to Prerogative. 323 

which is not represented."* ''The share of the 
national burdens, which any part of the kingdom 
bears, is the only rule by which we can judge of the 
weight that it ought to have in the political bal- 
ance." f His plan was to add to the county repre- 
sentation by giving an extra member to each county, 
in order that the great popular constituencies might 
gain at the expense of the small boroughs, which in 
1766 he described as "the rotten part of our consti- 
tution, that cannot continue a century. If it does 
not drop, it must be amputated." In his speech on 
January 22, 1770, Chatham entered fully into this 
plan, and the cautious and conservative manner in 
which he now approached the problem is clearly ex- 
emplified in the statement that the rotten boroughs 
must be considered the natural infirmity of the Con- 
stitution, which must be borne in patience. ''The 
limb is mortified but the amputation might be 
death." He could not cure that disorder, but he 
would infuse a portion of new health into the Con- 
stitution ; the representation of the counties is still 
preserved pure and uncorrupted : " it is not in the 
little dependent boroughs, it is in the great cities 
and counties that the strength and vigour of the 
constitution resides, and by them alone, if an un- 
happy question should ever arise, will the constitu- 
tion be honestly and firmly defended." % By way 
of maintaining the terms of the Union, Chatham pro- 
posed to add proportionately to the county repre- 
sentation of Scotland, although the county franchise 

'^Letters to Heitry Flood, p. 15. 

f Chatham Corr., iv., 169. % Ibid., iii., 406, 407. 



324 William Pitt, [1770- 

in that country consisted in *' superiorities," which 
were bought and sold in the market, and were en- 
joyed independently of property or residence.* In 
England the county franchise was the forty-shillings 
freehold, and Chatham's scheme would certainly 
have infused new health, but it was by no means a 
complete remedy for the disease, as at the close of 
the century 371 members for England and Wales 
out of 513 were returned as nominees, and the addi- 
tion of one free member for each county could have 
produced little effect upon this general result. The 
most remarkable defect in the plan w^as its failure to 
grant any representation for the great modern towns 
such as Manchester or« Birmingham, and the real 
value of the scheme consists in the fact that it was 
the pioneer attempt to touch the problem, and as- 
sisted to educate opinion. Chatham could be quoted 
as one who believed that the political machinery of 
the Constitution needed alteration, that the excel- 
lence of administration was dependent to some ex- 
tent upon the form of government, and in this 
respect he was nearer to the doctrinaire Liberalism 
of the nineteenth century, and of the seventeenth, 
than Edmund Burke. But Chatham, like Burke, 
regarded the Constitution as it emerged from the 
struggles of the seventeenth century as the ideal 
system of government ; for him, too, the system of 
balanced powers, of checks and equipoises and ad- 
justments, was an object of reverence. In enlarging 
the popular representation he desired to restore to 
the people their control over the House of Commons. 

* May, Constitutional History , i., 355. 




FROM THE PAINTING BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, 



1772] The Opposition to Prerogative. 325 

" Whoever understands the theory of the English con- 
stitution, and will compare it with the fact, must see at 
once how widely they differ. We must reconcile them 
to each other, if we wish to save the liberties of this 
country ; we must reduce our political practice, as 
nearly as possible, to our principles. The constitution 
intended that there should be a permanent relation 
between the constituent and representative body of the 
people. Will any man affirm, that, as the House of 
Commons is now formed, that relation is in any degree 
preserved ? My Lords, it is not preserved, it is 
destroyed." 

Burke and Chatham were at one in their desire 
for administrative reform, and in their belief that the 
end of government is the good of the people. But 
Burke held that *' our representation is as nearly 
perfect as the necessary imperfection of human 
affairs and of human creatures will suffer it to be," 
and his disregard for the mechanical theory of re- 
presentation is shown in his famous question, War- 
wick has members — is it more opulent, happy, and 
free than Birmingham, which is unrepresented ? The 
one positive reform carried in this period was George 
Grenville's Election Act, which transferred from the 
whole House to a specially chosen committee the 
duty of deciding disputed elections, and this was 
warmly supported by both Chatham and Burke. 

Another question on which they were agreed was 
the relief of Protestant Dissenters from subscribing 
the Thirty-Nine Articles in order to secure the bene- 
fits of the Toleration Act. A Bill with this object 
passed the Commons in 1772 but Avas rejected by the 



326 William Pitt. [1770- 

Lords. Chatham supported it, and, in 1790, Burke 
quoted a well-known sentence from this speech ad- 
dressed to the episcopal bench : " The dissenting 
ministers are represented as men of close ambition : 
they are so, my Lords ; and their ambition is to 
keep close to the College of Fishermen, not of car- 
dinals, and to the doctrine of inspired apostles not 
to the decrees of interested and aspiring bishops: 
they contend for a spiritual creed and spiritual wor- 
ship ; we have a Calvinist creed, a Popish liturgy, 
and an Arminian clergy." Chatham, added Burke, 
was always regarded as the protector of the Dissent- 
ers. Unfortunately, his toleration stopped short, 
like that of Milton, when it was a question of the 
Roman Catholic religion, and he was strongly op- 
posed to the establishment of that religion in Can- 
ada. The wisdom of that establishment has been 
demonstrated by events, but it was fiercely attacked 
at the time both by the Opposition and by the 
American colonists, and in the popular comparison 
of the day, George III. was said to resemble Charles 
I. in showing a dangerous partiality for the Roman 
religion. The action of the Ministers in thus recog- 
nising the religious belief of the French Canadians 
showed a wisdom in startling contrast to their ordi- 
nary conduct, and an immediate reward was reaped 
in the retention of Canada when the British colonies 
were lost. 

English foreign policy during this period followed 
no consistent plan. The desertion of Frederick left 
Great Britain without an ally in Europe, and not- 
withstanding her dominant position in 1763, her 



1772] The Opposition to Prerogative. 327 

influence on the course of European affairs was very 
slight. Choiseul and Grimaldi could make their 
preparations against England without fear of any 
other enemy. Choiseul, in 1768, purchased Corsica 
and England did not move, although the incident 
created the indignation always aroused among Eng- 
lishmen by the increase of any foreign empire. The 
idea of an alliance with the Corsican patriots had 
been suggested during the late war,* and Chatham 
expressed to Boswell very high opinions of Paoli, 
their leader. His view of the French purchase of 
Corsica was clearly expressed. 

" I cannot agree that nothing less than an immediate 
attack upon the honour and interest of this nation can 
authorise us to interfere in defence of weaker states, 
and in stopping the enterprise of an ambitious neighbour. 
Whenever that narrow, selfish policy has prevailed in 
our councils, we have constantly experienced the fatal 
effects of it. By suffering our natural enemies to op- 
press the powers less able than we are to make a resist- 
ance, we have permitted them to increase their strength, 
we have lost the most favourable opportunities of op- 
posing them with success. . . . With respect to Cor- 
sica, France has obtained a more useful and important 
acquisition in one pacific campaign than in any of her 
belligerent campaigns ; at least while I had the honour 
of administering the war against her." 

Spain endeavoured in 1770 to win a similar ad- 
vantage over the Falkland Islands without the ex- 
pense of purchase, by expelling a small EngHsh 

"^Chatham Correspondence, i., 242. 



328 William Pitt. [1770- 

force which for four years had been in possession of 
the islands. Chatham, by a curious coincidence, 
had predicted that a "blow of hostility " from France 
and Spain would fall at the moment he was speak- 
ing, in May, 1 770, when preparations were being 
made by Spain for the expedition."^ News of the 
aggression reached London in October, and the 
Ministers at once demanded from Spain restitution 
of the islands. Chatham believed that it was the 
opening incident of a new war, and he was justified 
in so believing, as war was only averted by the de- 
cline of Choiseul's influence in France. " My Min- 
ister wishes for war, but I do not," wrote Louis to 
the Spanish King, and it was not till Choiseul had 
fallen that the Spanish Court disavowed the expedi- 
tion and restored the English settlement. The 
question was debated in the Lords in November, 
1770, and Chatham delivered one of his greatest 
speeches. f The possibility of war at once made him 
the centre of universal attention, and elicited his full 
powers. Nothing is more characteristic of him, it 
may be observed, than the series of compliments in 
this speech to great men of the past, to Carteret, who 
in the upper department of government had not his 
equal; to Oliver Cromwell, who astonished mankind 
by his intelligence, ** who did not derive his informa- 
tion from spies in the Cabinet of every prince in 
Europe, but drew it from the cabinet of his own 
sagacious mind " ; and to Lord Anson, " to whose 
wisdom, experience, and care the nation owes the glo- 

* Thackeray's Life of Chatham^ ii., 197. 
\ Chatham Correspondence^ iv. , 2. 



1772] The Opposition to Prei^ogative. 329 

rious naval victories of the last war." Holding the 
view that war was inevitable, Chatham charged the 
Ministry with neglecting the navy, and laid down 
the principles of naval defence which ought to gov- 
ern English statesmen. The first of these indispens- 
able objects was '' such a sufficient naval force at 
home, that even the united fleets of France and 
Spain may never be masters of the channel " ; the 
second a powerful western squadron, to protect the 
colonies and commerce ; the third, '' such a force in 
the Bay of Gibraltar as may be sufficient to cover 
that garrison, to watch the motions of the Spaniards 
and to keep open communication with Minorca." 
In order to raise n;ien for the navy press-gangs had 
been at work, and certain of the city authorities, 
among them Wilkes, had attempted to prevent the 
pressing of men within the city limits. This action 
had been very popular, but Chatham believed that 
pressing was necessary and was founded upon unin- 
terrupted usage. '' I wholly condemn their conduct, 
and am ready to support any motion that may be 
made for bringing those aldermen who have en- 
deavoured to stop the execution of the Admiralty 
warrants to the bar of this House. . . . My opin- 
ion may not be very popular ; neither am I running 
the race of popularity." * On the immediate ques- 
tion of the islands he declared that war was inevit- 
able, though he desired an honourable peace, and he 
concluded with words of warning to the Ministers. 

"They are now balancing between a war which they 
ought to have foreseen, but for which they have made no 

* See also Chatham Correspondence, iii., 480, 485. 



330 William Pitt. [1770- 

provision, and an ignominious compromise. Let me 
warn them of their danger. If they are forced into a 
war, they stand it at the hazard of their heads. If, by 
an ignominious compromise, they should stain the hon- 
our of the Crown, or sacrifice the rights of the people, 
let them look to their consciences, and consider whether 
they will be able to walk the streets in safety." 

The compliance of Spain rescued Ministers from 
their dilemma, and they gained the credit of having 
secured their object by peaceable means. Dr. John- 
son in his pamphlet on the question powerfully at- 
tacked Chatham, and made what was, from his point 
of view, a singularly apt quotation from Corneille. 
The facts, argued this stout enemy of all enemies of 
the King, were *'a sufificient answer to the feudal 
gabble of a man who is every day lessening that 
splendour of character which once illuminated the 
kingdom, then dazzled, and afterwards inflamed it ; 
and for whom it will be happy if the nation shall at 
last dismiss him to nameless obscurity, with that 
equipoise of blame and praise which Corneille allows 
to Richelieu, a man who, I think, had much of his 
merit, and many of his faults. 

" Chacun parle a son gre de ce grand cardinal, 
Mais pour moi je n'en dirai rien ; 
II m'a fait trop de bien pour en dire du mal, 
II m'a fait trop de mal pour en dire du bien." 

In the latter years of his life Chatham's health 
was so variable that he rarely spoke with animation 
unless roused by the excitement of reply. A curious 
picture of the great orator is given in the following 
account of a visit to the House of Lords. Joseph 
Cradock wrote : 



1772] The Opposition to Prerogative, 331 

" Lord Carlisle made room for me between himself and 
another nobleman. That nobleman got up to speak, 
and then I perceived that it was the great Lord Chatham. 
He spoke only for a short time, was confused, and 
seemed greatly disconcerted ; and then, suddenly turn- 
ing to me he asked whether I had ever heard him speak 
before. ' Not in this House, my Lord ' was my reply. 
* In no House, Sir,' says he, ' I hope, have I ever so dis- 
graced myself. I feel ill, and I have been alarmed and 
annoyed this morning before I arrived. I scarce know 
what I have been talking about.' After an interval 
Chatham spoke again. He suddenly arose, and poured 
forth a torrent of eloquence that utterly astonished. 
The change was inconceivable ; the fire had been kin- 
dled, and we were all electrified with his energy and 
eloquence. At length he seemed quite exhausted, and, 
as he sat down, with great frankness, shook me by the 
hand and seemed personally to recollect me, and I then 
ventured to say, ' I hope your Lordship is satisfied.' 
' Yes, Sir,' he replied with a smile, ' I think I have now 
redeemed my credit.' " * 

* Memoirs of Joseph Cradock. Quoted by Trevelyan, American 
Revolution^ i. , 182. 





CHAPTER IX. 

THE ATTEMPT TO SAVE THE EMPIRE. 
I 772-1 778. 

IT remains for us to consider Chatham's later Amer- 
ican policy. Nothing is more remarkable than 
the apathy which prevailed in England from the 
date of Tovvnshend's budget till the penal measures 
of 1774. The world of politics and society was as 
blind to the great issue as that more brilliant society 
in Paris which discussed atheism and the fashions 
while the terrors of the Revolution were preparing. 
As Burke said, a robbery on Hounslow Heath ex- 
cited more notice than the riots in America which 
threatened to dissever an Empire. The King real- 
ised that a great contest was impending, and called 
up his inexhaustible obstinacy for the-^ruggle ; the 
commercial classes knew that their prosperity was 
threatened, but their influence in Parliament was 
perhaps weaker during the ascendancy there of the 
" King's friends " than at any period since the Rev- 
olution ; the most experienced officers of the army 
and navy dreaded a possible war more than the 
bellicose orators of Westminster ; but among the 

332 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire. 'Xi^iZ 

leading politicians only Chatham, Burke, and Shel- 
burne can be said to have realised the vital gravity 
of the problem which North wished solvere ambu- 
lando. The sentiments of Rockingham, Richmond, 
and the Cavendishes were true and sound, but the 
unavailing efforts of Burke to drag them from their 
fox-hunting and racing to St. Stephens are well 
known, and it is difficult to believe that the Whigs 
would have persisted in, their masterly inactivity if 
they had seen the true issue. It would be a grave 
injustice to accuse them of hunting while Rome 
burned. Even Chatham from 1770 to 1774 seems 
to have paid little attention to what was occurring 
in the colonies, and during these years there is 
scarcely a mention of America in his correspondence. 
This ignorance and apathy in England contrasts 
with a ferment of opinion in America, where men 
were slowly and cautiously considering their posi- 
tion, and comparing the claims of old association 
and tradition with the claims of the new order and 
society whose birth was heralded. It was a question 
momentous enough for each individual, whether his 
allegiance should be given to the Empire which 
seemed to have reached the height and summit of 
its power, or to the new State whose very existence 
as an united confederation was doubtful, and its 
greatness a matter of faith in the future. In one as- 
pect the struggle was one between contending polit- 
ical principles, and in England especially it was a 
contest between " Revolution principles " and t^e 
system of oligarchic government, which was the act- 
ual result of the Revolution of 1689. But the Amer- 



334 William Pitt. [1772- 

ican Revolution was more than a tragic incident in 
the fight between parties which is the continuous 
occupation of the British race. It is true that many 
Americans, one third probably of the colonists, op- 
posed the movement for separation, and that many 
Englishmen assisted the Americans in their resist- 
ance, but that which began as a civil war within the 
Empire became before its close a war between rival 
nations. The British race had lost its centre of com- 
mon allegiance, and divided itself not into two part- 
ies but into two States. That was an even greater 
result of the struggle than the triumph of self-gov- 
erning and democratic principles which the new 
State embodied. The American Loyalists were 
loyal to the Imperial connection, but they separated 
themselves from their fellow-colonists not because 
they approved the measures of Grenville and Town- 
shend and North, but because their patriotic devo- 
tion to the Empire was even stronger than the love 
they felt for their own colonies. In the American 
patriots that balance of sentiment was reversed. In 
England parties were divided on more exclusively 
party grounds ; there was an admixture of vulgar 
assertiveness of power which largely influenced the 
Bedford section of the Ministerial party, but so far 
as men were divided by thoughtful opinion and not 
by mere prejudice, it was on broad questions of Im- 
perial policy. Viewed in the most favourable light, 
the ideas of George III. were that on grounds of 
Imperial expediency the colonies could not be trusted 
with self-government ; that the central authority of 
the Empire must be maintained throughout its whole 




GEORGE III. 

FROM A PAINTING BY ALLAN RAMSAY IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire. 335 

extent ; that resistance to that authority must be 
repressed or the colonies would not remain in that 
subordinate position to the mother country which 
was their true place. Distrust of colonial self-gov- 
ernment, and the belief that colonies existed simply 
for the benefit of the mother country were the char- 
acteristics of the old colonial system, and it was for 
the old colonial system that George III. fought. 
That system was not his invention, but the head- 
long folly of his attempt to retain it in America lay 
in his neglect of the fact that, contrary indeed to the 
theory of the times, the Americans had enjoyed for 
a century the essential advantages of self-government. 
What was theoretically an assertion of existing law 
was in effect an extinction of privileges that had 
long' existed ; the legality of Parliamentary taxation 
might be defended, its inexpediency was flagrant 
because the colonies had taxed themselves through 
their Assemblies for a hundred years. Chatham and 
Burke in their resistance to George III. expressed in 
immortal words many ideas on which the free colo- 
nial system of Great Britain is founded to-day. 
They agreed in believing that colonial self-govern- 
ment creates content and loyalty, and they shared 
the great conception of an Empire in which all 
members, whether Americans or British, should 
enjoy equal rights ; Burke, and not Chatham, was 
among the pioneers of greater commercial freedom, 
and they differed again when the struggle had ceased 
to be one of party and had become international. 

It is unnecessary to relate all the events that oc- 
curred between Townshend's budget and the penal 



336 William Pitt. [1772- 

measures against Boston. The device of non-import- 
ation agreements which had succeeded against the 
Stamp Act was revived, the AssembHes responded 
to the invitation of Massachusetts and protested 
against the new duties, the Governors replied by a 
series of futile dissolutions, which only resulted in 
the return of new Assemblies that were even more 
determined than those dissolved. The Government 
policy in England was officially declared by a series 
of eight resolutions introduced by Hillsborough in 
the Lords and passed by the Commons on January 
26, 1769, which condemned the disloyalty of Massa- 
chusetts and the Boston Convention, and approved 
of sending a military force to Boston. Bedford also 
carried an address advising the use of an Act of 
Henry VHI. by which persons accused of treason 
might be deported to England for trial before a 
special commission. This last violent proposal was 
nicely calculated to increase the discontent in Amer- 
ica, and convince even moderate men that there was 
a tyrannical design to be feared in English policy. 
The Bedfords were in fact the enemies of conciliatory 
proposals, and but for them peace might have been 
secured. On May i, 1769, the Cabinet met and 
Grafton moved that all Townshend's duties should 
be repealed, but it was carried by one vote that the 
duty on tea should be retained in order to preserve 
the right to levy such duties. " We angrily rejected 
the bribe," says a recent American writer, *' all the 
more angrily, perhaps, because we half suspected the 
stability of our own virtue in rejecting it." * None 

* Tyler, Literature of the American Revolution^ i., 249. 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire, 337 

the less a good deal of tea was imported and paid 
duty. Lord North obtained the sanction of the 
Commons to the Cabinet policy on March 5, 1770, 
when the Opposition declared in favour of total re- 
peal and voted 142 to 204, a very large minority for 
those days. Welbore Ellis and Barrington, two of 
the King's friends, declaring that the Americans 
were unworthy of even the smallest indulgence, de- 
clined to support even partial repeal. There had 
been serious disorders in Boston, and these formed 
the main argument of the anti-American party and 
were an effective cause of increased prejudice and 
misunderstanding. Chatham took the wise view of 
such excesses, when he said that he could not justify 
them, but that ebullitions of liberty ought to be 
treated tenderly. " The discontent of two millions 
of people deserves consideration and the foundation 
ought to be removed." That was a statesman's 
judgment, but the majority of mankind are not 
statesmen, and the mob violences in America, harsh 
and cruel in their local effect, were a serious hind- 
rance to the cause of conciliation and a blot on the 
record of the patriotic party. They afforded some 
justification for the dispatch of two regiments to 
Boston, which Chatham regarded as a grievous mis- 
take. ''This poor country," he wrote to Calcraft, 
" seems doomed to the worst species of ruin ; that 
wrought by her own hands, by oppressing, as fool- 
ishly as cruelly, the cause of our greatness, the de- 
voted colonies." * The presence of the troops in 
Boston was a source of constant irritation ; if they had 

* Chatham Correspondence^ iii., 468, 
22 



33 S William Pitt. [1772- 

been used to protect the friends of England against the 
dangers of riot they might have served a proper end, 
but they were in fact a parade of power, a visible 
threat, which irritated the inhabitants of Boston 
without alarming them. 

In 1772, the colonies established the committees of 
grievances, which afforded a means of communication 
between the different provinces and prepared the way 
for the Continental Congresses. The home Govern- 
ment, reahsing too late the weakness of the executive 
and judiciary in the colonial constitutions, proposed 
to pay the salaries of Governors and Judges, a meas- 
ure naturally alarming to the Assemblies, which saw 
their supremacy threatened. In 1773 occurred the 
famous publication of a series of private letters, from 
Hutchinson and others, who had advised " an 
abridgment of English liberties " in America. 
Franklin had by some unknown means obtained this 
correspondence, and transmitted it to his friends, 
under a pledge that it should not be published. 
Copies, however, were soon printed and their circula- 
tion still further inflamed feeling ; the petition from 
Massachusetts for the dismissal of Governor Hutch- 
inson founded upon his private letters was not un- 
naturally disregarded by the Privy Council, and 
Wedderburn found an occasion for his celebrated in- 
vective against Franklin, an attack which lessened 
Franklin's attachment to the British connection. 
The East India Company having obtained a licence 
to export a large stock of tea to America, on Novem- 
ber 18, 1773, its ship Dartmouth arrived in Boston 
harbour with the tea, and the inhabitants organised 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire. 339 

their defence as if they were resisting an invading 
army. For a month the Dartmouth lay in the har- 
bour unable to land its cargo, and unable to leave be- 
cause the Governor refused a pass until the cargo had 
been cleared. At length the tension was ended by a 
body of fifty men disguised as Indians boarding the 
ship and emptying the tea into the bay. The men 
acted under the authority of a town meeting, and 
they well knew that their act was a declaration of 
war. " Let us consider the issue," the younger Quin- 
cey had said that same day, '* before we advance to 
those measures which must bring on the most trying 
and terrible struggle this country ever saw." The 
issues had been considered, the struggle had begun. 
The reply of the British Government was prompt 
and stern ; although Shelburne wrote to Chatham 
that Dartmouth was determined " to cover America 
from the present storm to the utmost of his power," 
and that North's language was of a moderate cast, 
*yet the policy was much more resolute than anything 
which had previously been done. A determined 
effort to crush Boston into submission was to be. 
made and three acts were passed through Parliament. 
The Boston Port Bill closed that harbour to trade 
until compensation for the destruction of the tea was 
made ; the Massachusetts Charter was remodelled in 
a drastic manner, and a futile provision was inserted 
forbidding public meetings, other than those for elec- 
tions, without consent of the Governor; and for the 
impartial administration of justice power was given 
to the Governor to transfer persons charged with 
murder, or any capital offence, for trial in Great Brit- 



340 Wtllzam Pitt. [1772- 

ain or another colony. The view taken of these acts 
by the people of Massachusetts was tersely stated in 
their remonstrance : " By the first," they wrote, *' the 
property of unoffending thousands is arbitrarily taken 
away for the act of a few individuals ; by the second 
our chartered liberties are annihilated ; and by the 
third our lives may be destroyed with impunity." 
In their ignorance of the real feelings and character 
of the Americans the Ministry supposed that they 
had but to crush Boston while the rest of the colo- 
nists looked on ; their action in fact was the signal 
for immediate union among the colonies, and their 
coercion of a single town was answered by a Conti- 
nental Congress. The House of Commons shared 
their ignorance, and it is surely the height of irony to 
find Horace Walpole writing to a friend in the month 
when the acts were before Parliament, " We are in 
great tranquillity here — even America gives us no 
pain — at least it makes no sensation, for the Oppos- 
ition has not taken up the cause. The general line 
against the Bostonians is threats." * While the Amer- 
icans prepared for their Congress, a general election 
was taking place in England and the majority of 
Lord North was increased. 

Chatham's view of the situation was fully stated in 
a letter to Shelburne of March 20, 1774. 

" The violence committed upon the tea cargo is cert- 
ainly criminal ; nor would it be real kindness to the Amer- 
icans to adopt their passions and wild pretensions, when 
they manifestly violate the indispensable ties of civil soci- 

* Letters y vi., 69, 




Copyright 



Walker & Cockerell. 



HORACE WALPOLE. 

FROM THE PAINTING BY N. HONE IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire. 341 

ety . Boston, therefore, appears to me to owe reparation for 
such a destruction of the property of the East India Com- 
pany. This is, to my mind, clear and evident ; but, I 
confess, it is equally clear to me, that in pursuing this 
just object, Government may become unjust ; if they at- 
tempt to blend the enforcement of general declared rights 
of the British Parliament (which I must for ever treat as 
rights in theory only) with a due satisfaction for a tu- 
multuous act of a very criminal nature. The methods, 
too, proposed, by way of coercion, appear to me too se- 
vere, as well as highly exceptionable in order of time, for 
reparation ought first to be demanded in a solemn man- 
ner, and refused by the town and magistracy of Boston, 
before such a bill of pains and penalties can be called 
just. . . . Perhaps a fatal desire to take advantage 
of this guilty tumult of the Bostonians, in order to crush 
the spirit of liberty among the Americans in general, has 
taken possession of the heart of Government. If that 
mad and cruel measure should be pushed, one needs not 
to be a prophet to say, England has seen her best days. 
Boston, I hope and believe, would make reparation." * 

Washington also remarked that there should have 
been a requisition of payment and refusal of it before 
the Boston Port Bill was passed, and undoubtedly 
this would have been the wise and just course, al- 
though at the same time it is highly improbable that 
Boston would have made any reparation. Such a 
demand preceding coercion would at least have set 
the English Government in a fairer light in the eyes 
of other Americans, whereas coercion preceding the 
demand brought the other colonies to the side of 



"^Chatham Correspondence ^ iv., 336, 337. 



342 William Pitt. [1772- 

Massachusetts. Compensation, as Chatham wrote, 
implied a recognition of the authority of Great Britain. 

" Had they stopped here, much ground would have 
been gained for English government, and the great work 
of reducing back the colonies to order, and a competent 
measure of obedience, would have been more than half 
accomplished. By going on to further severities, I fear, 
all is put to the hazard. America guilty, would have 
submitted ; and subsequent lenitives might have restored 
mutual good will and necessary obedience. America 
disfranchised, and her character mutilated, may, I for- 
bode, resist, and the cause become general on that vast 
continent. If this happens, England is no more." * 

Chatham returned to London in order to speak 
against another measure of this year renewing the 
Quartering Act, and made a speech f of which the 
profound wisdom was proved by subsequent events. 
*' By blocking up the harbour of Boston, you have 
involved the innocent trader in the same punishment 
with the guilty profligates who destroyed your mer- 
chandise." " My Lords, I am an old man, and 
would advise the noble lords in office to adopt a 
more gentle mode of governing America, for the day 
is not far distant, when America may vie with these 
kingdoms, not only in arms but in arts also." " In- 
stead of adding to their miseries, adopt some lenient 
measures, which may lure them to their duty." 
'' Pass an amnesty on all their youthful errors." 
" Should their turbulence exist after your proffered 
terms of forgiveness, I will be among the foremost 

* Chatham Co7'respondence, iv. , 342. \Ibid., iv., 345. 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire, 343 

to move for such measures as will effectually prevent 
a further relapse." Chatham's insight into the 
American character was the outcome of deep affec- 
tion and sympathy ; to him they were not "■ our 
subjects," but Englishmen who still loved the tones 
of that deep chord which Hampden smote, they were 
cives Romani, men of the true race, of like faith and 
passions with himself. "■ There," he wrote of Amer- 
ica, " there where I had garnered up my heart." 

The colonists, on the initiative of the Virginian 
Assembly, supported Boston ; the day on which the 
port was closed was proclaimed a day of prayer and 
fasting, a solemn league and covenant was entered 
into to abstain from all commerce with Great Brit- 
ain, and on September 5, 1774, the delegates of 
twelve colonies met in the Continental Congress at 
Philadelphia. The constitution of this Congress was 
informal, its authority was moral rather than legal. 
" Certain it is," says an American historian, " that 
only a very small minority of the people of the col- 
onies were concerned in calling the early Congresses. 
As certain, also, is it that a very large preponder- 
ance of the people of all classes were then strongly 
opposed to any violent measures, to sundering ties 
of allegiance, or to seeking anything beyond a peace- 
ful redress of grievances." * Within the Congress, 
among the ablest Americans a strong body of mod- 
erate opinion was disclosed, and though a minority 
was already determined upon independence the 
actual outcome was a declaration of principles far 
from extreme and in no sense seditious. The resist- 



*Dr. Ellis, in Winsor's History of America, vi., 233. 



344 William Pitt. i[i772- 

ance of Boston was approved, and a lengthy state- 
ment of grievances enumerated acts which must be 
repealed, declared a standing army illegal without 
colonial consent, and condemned the arbitrary acts 
of Governors. But on the other hand only peaceful 
means of resistance were commended, the legislative 
authority of Parliament was admitted, and in the ad- 
dress to the people of Great Britain it was explicitly 
stated : "■ Place us in the same situation that we 
were at the close of the last war, and our former 
harmony will be restored." Even the second Con- 
gress, it must be remembered, declared that it did 
not desire independence, and adopted a petition to 
the King, full of loyal expressions, which was drawn 
up by Dickinson, who represented the moderate 
section of the patriotic party. It besought the sov- 
ereign himself to interfere on behalf of his subjects. 
Richard Penn, who carried the petition, was not per- 
mitted to see the King, for George III. had no inten- 
tion of using the prerogative in a manner which 
might have won for it a splendid historical justifi- 
cation. A proclamation against sedition was the 
only answer that reached the ears of his American 
subjects. 

Chatham wrote and spoke with the highest admir- 
ation of the Congress. "■ I think it must be evident 
to every unprejudiced man in England who feels for 
the rights of mankind, that America, under all her 
oppressions and provocations, holds forth to us the 
most fair and just opening, for restoring harmony 
and affectionate intercourse as heretofore." * For 



* Chatham Carrespondence, iv. , 368. 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire. 345 

January 20, 1775, he had given notice of a motion 
on America, and on that day he took Franklin to 
the House. The purport of his motion was not 
known, and Horace Walpole mentions two curious 
speculations. ** I had been told that Lord Chatham 
was commissioned by Dr. Franklin to offer the King 
;^350,ooo a year from America, if the offensive bills 
were repealed. The Ministers thought he was to 
ask for an increase of force, so their intelligence was 
at least no better than mine?"* What Chatham 
actually moved for was an address to the King to 
remove the troops from Boston, and when this was 
known, says Walpole, the Opposition stared and 
shrugged, the courtiers stared and laughed. It was 
in fact a proposal as startling and unexpected as that 
other very different one for an immediate war with 
Spain which he had submitted to a trembling Coun- 
cil, and it was the more courageous of the two. The 
man of decisive action was seen in both, and the wis- 
dom of both proposals was justified by the event. 
It was the moment of crisis, and though the voices 
of the street and market place would have derided 
the withdrawal of troops, as an act of cowardice, of 
weakness inexcusable in a mighty people, yet this 
was the one solution, and it was offered at the 
last available hour. But the courtiers stared and 
laughed, caring less in their ephemeral wisdom for the 
union with America than for beating the Americans. 
The speech in which Chatham urged his proposal 
was essentially practical. '' Gage's army in Boston," 
he said, " is an army of impotence and irritation ; at 

"^ Letters, vi., 185. 



346 William Pitt. [177 2- 

any moment the first blood may be shed, and it will 
be iinmedicabile viilnus ; an hour now lost in allay- 
ing ferments in America may produce years of calam- 
ity." "Adopt, then, the grace, while you have the 
opportunity, of reconcilement." 

" " What though you march from town to town, and 
from province to province ; though you should be able 
to enforce a temporary and local submission, which I 
only suppose, not admit — how shall you be able to secure 
the obedience of the country you leave behind you in 
your progress, to grasp the dominion of eighteen hun- 
dred miles of continent, populous in numbers, possess- 
ing valour, liberty and resistance ? . . . As an 
American, I would recognise to England her supreme 
right of regulating commerce and navigation ; as an 
Englishman in birth and principles, I recognise to the 
Americans their supreme inalienable right in their prop- 
erty ; a right which they are justified in the defence of 
to the last extremity. To maintain this principle is the 
common cause of the Whigs on the other side of the At- 
lantic, and on this. * 'Tis liberty to liberty engaged,' 
that they will defend themselves, their families, and their 
country. In this great cause they are immovably allied ; 
it is the alliance of God and nature — immutable, eternal 
— fixed as the firmament of heaven. . . . For 
solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of 
conclusion, under such a complication of difficult cir- 
cumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in pre- 
ference to the general Congress at Philadelphia. I 
trust it is obvious to your Lordships, that all attempts 
to impose servitude upon such men, to establish despot- 
ism over such a mighty continental nation^ must be 
vain, must be fatal. We shall be forced ultimately to 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire. 347 

retreat, I say we must necessarily undo these violent op- 
pressive acts ; they must be repealed — you will repeal 
them ; I pledge myself for it, that you will in the end 
repeal them ; I stake my reputation on it : — I will con- 
sent to be taken for an idiot, if they are not finally re- 
pealed. . . . Concession comes with better grace 
and more salutary effect from superior power : Tuque 
prior ^ tu parce^ projice tela manu. . . .If the 
Ministers thus persevere in misadvising and misleading 
the King, I will not say that they can alienate the affec- 
tions of his subjects from his Crown ; but I will affirm, 
that they will make the Crown not worth his wearing. 
I will not say that the King is betrayed ; but I will pro- 
nounce that the kingdom is undone."* 

The entire speech is worthy to be remembered 
with Burke's great philosophic oration, and higher 
praise it is impossible to bestow. 

On February 1st, Chatham produced in the Lords 
his plan for settling the troubles in America.f It 
was in the form of a Provisional Act, which aimed at 
a lasting settlement of claims not sufficiently ascer- 
tained and circumscribed. It asserted the supreme 
legislative and superintending power of Parliament 
and the Crown, particularly in regard to navigation 
and trade, and to the dispatch of armies to any of 
the British dominions without the consent of any 
provincial assembly existing in such dominion. It 
was further declared and enacted " that no tallage, 
tax, or other charge for His Majesty's revenue, shall 
be commanded or levied from British freemen in 



* Chatham Correspondence, iv., 377-384. 

f The text is in Chatham Correspondence, iv., App. I, 



348 William Pitt. [1772- 

America, without common consent, by act of pro- 
vincial assembly there, duly convened for that pur- 
pose." The meeting of the General Congress at 
Philadelphia was legalised in order that it might 
" take into consideration the making due recognition 
of the supreme legislative authority and superintend- 
ing power of Parliament over the colonies as afore- 
said." The Congress was to be required to consider 
a free grant to the King of a certain perpetual revenue 
to be appropriated towards the National Debt, and 
to fix the quotas to be borne by each province. The 
recognition of Parliamentary authority by Congress 
was to precede the operation of the clause declaring 
the sole right of the colonies in the matter of taxa- 
tion. Further, the Admiralty Courts in America 
were reduced to their ancient limits, trial by jury 
was restored, and the jury of vicinage. A list of 
acts followed which were suspended from the date 
of the act, and to be repealed from the day on which 
the colonies recognised the authority of Parliament. 
These acts were those against which the Congress 
had protested. The Judges were to be paid by the 
Crown but to hold office quam diu se bene gesserint, 
and the Charters of the several colonies were not to 
be invaded or resumed except on some legal ground 
of forfeiture. 

Chatham, while preparing this scheme, had lengthy 
consultations with Franklin. Mr. Franklin claimed 
no share in its authorship, his principal work being 
to copy into the Bill a list of the acts of which 
Congress had demanded the repeal. It is perhaps 
idle to discuss the capacity of this scheme to turn 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

AFTER THE PAINTING BY DUPLESSI8. 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire. 349 

the current of destiny. It offered a solution of the 
problem, but what was there to persuade men to 
adopt it? The wisdom of the schools could not 
avail when power was in the hand of George III., of 
Sandwich and Gower and Hillsborough. The Lords 
would not even admit the Bill to a second reading, 
and in America the scheme received little attention.* 
It was not unnatural that the greatest Englishman 
of the day should be angered by the contemptuous 
usage he received from the men who were hurrying 
England into a disastrous war, which they were 
utterly incapable of conducting ; and Chatham an- 
ticipated the verdict of history in a passage of fierce 
invective against the Ministers. " The whole of your 
political conduct has been one continued series of 
weakness, temerity, despotism, ignorance, futiHty, 
negligence, and the most notorious servility, in- 
capacity, and corruption." "Your situation is pre- 
carious ; who should wonder that you can put a 
negative on any measure which must annihilate your 
power, deprive you of your emoluments, and at once 
reduce you to that state of insignificance for which 
God and nature designed you?"f The delivery of 
the speech, says Walpole, recalled the memory of 
Chatham's ancient lustre. 

But while the acceptance of Chatham's scheme 
was impossible in England, and doubtful in America, 



* The New York Journal said of the Bill, The friendly appear- 
ance and perhaps design of a great part of the Bill, would have a 
powerful tendency to divide and weaken us." Amer, Archives ^ 
Series iv., i., 1506. 

f Chatham Correspondence ^ iv., 395, 396. 



350 William Pitt. [1772- 

it is the best example of his method in legislation, 
illustrating both his great power and insight and 
the limitations of his mind. His belief in great 
principles was so profound that he often overlooked 
the difficulties of their application, and no doubt he 
overrated the offer of a Declaratory Bill to nations 
which were arming. Opposing hosts do not lay 
down their arms because a careful logical statement 
shows that there is both truth and error in the con- 
tentions of each side. The Bill was in the nature of 
an arbitrator's award, and such judgments were even 
more difficult of acceptance in the eighteenth cent- 
ury than in our own. But if all that can be urged 
in depreciation of its academic nature be granted, 
the scheme possesses remarkable merits. Its central 
, and most striking feature is the recognition of the 
Congress, its approbation of colonial unity and, 
within clear limits, of colonial self-government. 
Many Englishmen feared the Congress as a rival 
Parliament within the Empire, many condemned it 
as a rebel assembly, but Chatham proposed to use 
it. It had been naturally evolved, its proceedings 
had displayed true political instinct, its declarations 
afforded "a just and fair opening" and were avow- 
edly hostile to separation. Therefore, said Chatham, 
strengthen it by your recognition, use it as your 
means of communication with all the colonies, reply 
to its opening by announcing the terms of a general 
settlement, for it is easier to deal with one Congress 
than with many Assemblies. Adams, we know, was 
alarmed lest the moderation of Congress should pro- 
duce agreement, and as Adams aimed at separation 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire, 351 

while Chatham aimed at union, the alarm of Adams 
was the justification of Chatham. This feature of 
the plan was an unique proof of political wisdom, 
and raises it higher than the terms of conciliation 
outlined in Burke's thirteen resolutions. The effect 
of its adoption upon American sentiment would have 
been great, and the powerful body of opinion in 
favour of England would have been strengthened. 
Doubtless the terms of settlement contained in the 
Bill would not have been immediately accepted, but 
it is at least equally certain that they would not have 
been immediately rejected. Discussion would have 
been substituted for war, and out of discussion a 
different issue might have come forth. It was, how- 
ever, a counsel of perfection to ask Parliament to 
recognise and confer with the Congress that had been 
declared a rebel and seditious body, and the House 
of Commons was never created which would have 
adopted so ideal a course in the midst of so heated 
a controversy. 

While Chatham eagerly counselled a magnanimous 
generosity, it is clear that he thought first of the 
Empire as a whole. This was a Bill of assertion as 
well as a Bill of concession, and no point was yielded 
that would weaken the central authority in any essen- 
tial particular. The colonists had of course protested 
against standing armies and against the commercial 
regulations which were the root cause of American 
discontent. Chatham, however, believed that these 
matters were of general Imperial concern, and so 
asserted in his Bill. In an interview with Franklin 
he expressed much satisfaction that America did not 



352 William Pitt. [1772- 

alm at independence or getting rid of the Navigation 
Acts, " but allowed that some amendment might be 
made in the commercial laws." ^ Franklin's judg- 
ment on the plan as a whole is of great interest, and 
confirms the belief that if it had been accepted it 
would at least have produced an amicable discussion. 
On February 5, 1775, Franklin wrote to an American 
friend : f 

" It is thought by our friends, that Lord Chatham's 
plan, if it had been enacted here, would have prevented 
present mischief, and might have been the foundation 
of a lasting good agreement ; for, though in some points 
it might not perfectly coincide with our ideas and wishes, 
we should have proposed modifications or variations, 
where we should judge them necessary ; in fine, the two 
countries might have met in perfect union. I hope 
therefore, it will be treated with respect by our writers, 
and its author honoured for the attempt ; for, though he 
has put some particulars into it, as I think, by way of 
complying a little with the general prejudice here, and 
to make more material parts go better down, yet I 
am persuaded he would not otherwise be tenacious of 
those parts, meaning sincerely to make us contented and 
happy, so far as consistent with the general welfare." 

Unhappily Chatham fell ill shortly after this date, 
and until May, 1777, was absent from public life, and 
unable to infliuence opinion. During this period the 
question he had hoped to settle by political means 
was transferred to another arena, and men were only 
reminded of the great conciliator by the rapid fulfil- 



^ Franklin^ s Works (Sparks), v., 4, 7. f Ibid^ x., 438. 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire. 353 

ment of his mournful prophecies. North made a 
declaration that when any colony voluntarily made 
such a contribution to the defence of the Empire as 
satisfied Parliament it should be free of Parliamentary 
taxes, but beforethis offer could be considered thefirst 
blood had been shed at Lexington, the immedicabile 
vidnus had been inflicted. Congress, indeed, still de- 
clared that they had no desire to separate, and Dick- 
inson made one last effort in the petition to the 
King, but an army of self-defence was organised, and 
Washington was given the command. How different 
would have been the mood of this Congress if 
Chatham's plan had been adopted is shown by the 
fact that, although England spoke only through 
North, every important step in a revolutionary direc- 
tion was opposed, and carried only by bare majori- 
ties. But Congress was followed by the battle of 
Bunker's Hill, by the futile invasion of Canada, and 
by Lord Dunmore's savage violence in Virginia. 
The war had commenced, and with evil auspices for 
the mother country. Howe evacuated Boston in 
March, 1776, and sailed for Halifax, and so difficult 
was it to find sufficient men for the service that 
George HL was compelled to buy seventeen thou- 
sand of their subjects from the Princes of Brunswick 
and Hesse Cassel and Waldeck. The cost of this 
purchase was a heavy one, as it was followed im- 
mediately by the Declaration of Independence. 

Chatham would not allow his son, who had been 
with Carleton in Canada, to serve against the Ameri- 
cans, and in July, 1776, at the moment when inde- 
pendence was declared he confided to his physician a 

83 



354 William Pitt, [1772- 

statement of his opinions,* which remained unshaken, 
in regard to America. 

" Unless ejffectual measures were speedily taken for 
reconciliation with the colonies, he was fully persuaded, 
that, in a very few years, France will set her foot on 
English ground. That in the present moment, her 
policy may probably be to wait some time, in order to 
see England more deeply engaged in this ruinous war, 
against herself, in America ; as well as to prove how far 
the Americans, abetted by France indirectly only, may be 
able to make a stand, before she takes an open part, by 
declaring war upon England." 

The Bourbon danger was never absent from Chat- 
ham's mind when he considered America; but the 
English Ministers were either actually blind to it 
or wilfully indifferent. That Chatham accurately 
gauged the French policy is clear from the secret 
memorials which Vergennes a few months previously 
had forwarded to the French King; the long prepa- 
rations of Choiseul had been closely followed by 
Shelburne who, as Disraeli said, was the best in- 
formed statesman in Europe, and had been com- 
municated by him to Chatham, but the ofificials in 
England had been criminally neglectful of this tre- 
mendous feature in the problem confronting them. 
War with the colonists meant war with the Bour- 
bons, and yet the navy was neglected. Vergennes 
informed his sovereign that Providence had marked 
out this moment for the humiliation of England, 
and when the policy of open war was declined, he 



* Chatham Correspondence^ iv. , 424. 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire, 355 

r ■ ■ - - - ■ ■ -■■ - -, — , 

counselled the exact policy which Chatham had indi- 
cated as probable. *' The continuance of the war for 
at least one year is desirable to the two Crowns. To 
that end the British Ministry must be maintained in 
the persuasion that France and Spain are pacific, so 
that it may not fear to embark in an active and 
costly campaign, while on the other hand the cour- 
age of the Americans should be kept up by secret 
favours and vague hopes which will prevent accom- 
modation." This policy was carried out, and arms 
and money were granted to the Americans, while 
Vergennes was assuring the English ambassador that 
France was strictly neutral and pacific. The Ameri- 
can commissioners were able to assure their country- 
men that every nation in Europe wished to see 
Britain humbled. All scruples against seeking for- 
eign assistance were silenced by the employment of 
German mercenaries, and the ill success of Amer- 
ican arms during 1776 and 1777 made it an urgent 
necessity. 

It is impossible to trace even in outline the course 
of the war, and it is enough to say that the first 
campaigns convinced the Americans of the vast 
difficulties involved in the struggle, and showed also 
to astute observers that although the British might 
win pitched battles they could not subdue a conti- 
nent three thousand miles from their base. The 
physical difficulties of intercommunication between 
their armies were too great for complete success. 
If a great War Minister had been in command, it 
is possible that temporary success might have been 
achieved ; but the War Office was under the casual 



356 William Pitt. [1772- 

superintendence of Lord George Germaine, and the 
generals employed consistently failed to follow up 
their advantages. Howe took New York and Phila- 
delphia in the course of his leisurely campaigns, and 
Burgoyne, marching south from Canada, began with 
a brilliant success in the capture of Ticonderoga. 
These first successes made the war popular in Eng- 
land, though her commerce suffered terribly from the 
American privateers, which won large fortunes for 
their owners. The first great check to the British 
arms was the Convention of Saratoga (October 17, 
1777), when Burgoyne, cut off from his expected 
allies and surrounded by the enemy, was compelled 
to surrender his whole army. 

The moment his health allowed, Chatham returned 
to London, and on May 30, 1777, moved an address 
for the cessation of hostilities.* He urged the im- 
possibility of conquering America, and the impend- 
ing danger of French action. "You talk of your 
powerful forces to disperse their army ; I might as 
well talk of driving them before me with this crutch." 
"What will you do out of the protection of your 
fleet? In the winter, if your men are together, they 
are starved ; and if dispersed, they are taken off in 
detail." " The moment a treaty with France ap- 
pears, you must declare war, though you had only 
five ships of the line in England." Speaking again, 
on November 20th, before the news of Saratoga had 
arrived, Chatham, declaring that in three campaigns 
we had done nothing and suffered much, referred to 
" the sufferings and perhaps total loss of the northern 

* Chatham Correspondence^ iv., 433. 



1778] The Attempt to Save the E7npire. 357 

force." It was necessary, he said, " to instruct the 
throne in the language of truth " ; but yesterday, 
and England might have stood against the world; 
now none so poor to do her reverence, and Ministers 
dared not resent the insult of French interference. 
The discipline of our troops was wounded, and pil- 
lage and rapine were disgracing the British arms. 
" But, my Lords, who is the man that, in addition to 
these disgraces and mischiefs of our army, has dared 
to authorise and associate to our arms the tomahawk 
and scalping knife of the savage ? " *' Besides these 
murderers and plunderers, let me ask our Ministers 
— what other allies have they required ? What other 
powers have they associated to their cause ? Have 
they entered into an alliance with tJie King of the 
gipsies ? " He advocated an appeal to the sound 
parts of America, and protested that as an English- 
man he could not wish the Americans success if they 
struggled for independence and total disconnection 
from England. " The strong bias of America, at 
least of the wise and sounder parts of it, naturally 
inclines to this happy and Constitutional re-connec- 
tion with you. Notwithstanding the temporary 
intrigues with France, we may still be assured of 
their ancient and confirmed partiality to us. America 
and France cannot be congenial; there is something 
decisive and confirmed in the honest American that 
will not assimilate to the futility and levity of 
Frenchmen." To this occasion belongs that ornate 
philippic against the employment of Indians, which 
is the most frequently quoted example of Chatham's 
oratory. Like all the most astonishing outbursts of 



358 Willia7n Pitt. [1772- 

his eloquence, this was delivered in reply, and was 
occasioned by a chance remark in debate. It is now 
established that the Americans themselves were the 
first to employ Indians, and also that Indians had been 
employed against the French under the sanction of 
Chatham himself. These facts afforded the defence 
of precedent to Ministers, but it was not the employ- 
ment of Indians, but the defence made by Suffolk 
which drew the attack of Chatham. Suffolk con- 
tended that '' it was perfectly justifiable to use all 
the means that God and nature put into their hands," 
and it was this conjunction of the most venerable 
names with the vile barbarity of savages that inspired 
into the orator wrath, indignation, and scorn, which 
w^ere expressed in moving invocations of all that 
most solemnly impresses the human mind, of religion, 
and justice, and the State. Such rhetoric, unpre- 
meditated and uncomposed, was the prerogative of 
one to whom those ideas were realities ; when Chat- 
ham invoked the genius of the Constitution he spoke 
no vacant bombast, but rather called upon that which 
to his mind was the supreme embodiment of law. 
"He started up," says Grafton, ''with a degree of 
indignation that added to the force of the sudden 
and unexampled burst of eloquence, which must 
have affected any audience, and which appeared to 
me to surpass all that we have ever heard of the 
celebrated orators of Greece and Rome." 

The news of Saratoga immediately decided the 
Court of France, and on February 6, 1778, the treaty 
acknowledging American independence was signed, 
and the alliance entered upon. The whole situation 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire. 359 

was changed ; the colonists were no longer a party 
within the Empire fighting for civil rights, but the 
avowed ally of England's inveterate enemy, pledged 
to assist in the conquest of British territory by for- 
eign arms. No blame, certainly, can attach to the 
Americans for seizing every assistance offered, as not 
even the surrender of Burgoyne could compensate 
for the serious weakness in organisation and equip- 
ment which had hitherto hampered the army of 
Washington, and the urgent need of further help 
was fully realised by all the leaders of American 
opinion. But the English friends of the colonists 
were compelled to recast their consideration of the 
case, which was still further modified by the new 
policy adopted by North. When the French alliance 
was known, steps were taken to conciliate America; 
peace commissioners were appointed with full power 
to negotiate a settlement, to suspend any act passed 
since 1763, and to surrender the right of taxation. 
Everything might be yielded except independence. 
Such was the instant effect of the French threat 
upon George III. and Lord North, and it is not sur- 
prising that the Americans, having obtained so much, 
believed that they could obtain all, and declined to 
negotiate except on the basis of independence. 
Moreover, the offer made them was suspect, because 
it came from the men who had been their bitter ene- 
mies, and was conveyed through commissioners who 
could not readily be trusted. Chatham himself had 
protested that conciliation was only possible if it 
proceeded from men more acceptable to the colonists 
than Ministers could be. 



360 William Pitt. [1772- 

" Who are the persons that are to treat on the part of 
this afflicted and deluded country ? The very men who 
have been the authors of our misfortunes ; the very men 
who have e^ideavoured, by the most pernicious policy, 
the highest injustice and oppression, the most cruel and 
devastating war, to enslave those people, they would 
conciliate to gain the confidence and affection of those 
who have survived the Indian tomahawk and the German 
bayonet ! " 

But even when it is granted that Lord North 
was not the man to achieve a settlement, it is clear 
that from the English point of view his surrender of 
all the points demanded by the colonists in the be- 
ginning of the struggle altered the character of the 
contest. The war was no longer waged on behalf of 
a bad policy, but on behalf of the Imperial connec- 
tion between Great Britain and America. 

In the light of these new facts two policies were 
possible. The Rockinghams argued that it would be 
even more difficult to conquer America and the 
Bourbons combined than to conquer America alone, 
and that therefore England should immediately 
grant independence and avoid the further difficulties 
involved in a French and Spanish contest. The im- 
mediate expediency of such a course was evident, but 
Chatham believed that national honour was infinitely 
superior to such considerations of immediate expedi- 
ency. He believed that to admit a separation be- 
tween the mother country and her colonies would be 
fatal to the greatness of England, and that to admit 
it on the dictation of France would be fatal to her 
honour. His policy was to fight France, to beat 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire. 361 

France in order to convince the colonists that her al- 
liance availed nothing, and to offer them everything 
except that independence which he believed so irre- 
trievably damaging to the Empire. The great strug- 
gle for wise government in the colonies, in which he 
had given so freely of his passion and his strength, 
had suddenly become of secondary importance ; the 
ancient inveterate enemy of England was renewing 
her evil devices, and every other contest was insig- 
nificant by the side of that age-long warfare between 
the neighbouring nations. " The dismemberment of 
the Empire," writes Macaulay in one of the most 
brilliant passages in his essays, " seemed to Chatham 
less ruinous and humiliating, when produced by do- 
mestic dissensions, than when produced by foreign 
interference. His blood boiled at the degradation of 
his country. Whatever lowered her among the na- 
tions of the earth, he felt as a personal outrage to 
himself. And the feeling was natural. He had 
made her so great. He had been so proud of her; 
and she had been so proud of him. He remembered 
how, more than twenty years before, in a day of 
gloom and dismay, when her possessions were torn 
from her, when her flag was dishonoured, she had 
called on him to save her. He remembered the 
sudden and glorious change which his energy had 
wrought, the long series of triumphs, the days 
of thanksgiving, the nights of illumination." That 
indeed sets vividly before us the pride and faith 
of Chatham in England and in himself. But, 
says Macaulay, his passions overpowered his judg- 
ment, and he could not without absurdity maintain 



362 William Pitt. [1772- 

that it was easier to conquer France and America 
together than America alone. Macaulay forgot that 
Chatham did not intend to conquer America ; he 
trusted that he might win back the affections of the 
Americans — a vain hope perhaps, but not even at 
that date demonstrably absurd. We must view his 
policy as a whole ; it demanded a complete change 
in the Ministry, and the dismissal of those who had 
been their enemies would certainly have made the 
Americans more willing to negotiate, just as a dicta- 
torship of Chatham would have increased the alarm 
of France and Spain. His name was beloved in 
America as it was feared in Europe. With complete 
power in his hands Chatham would have concen- 
trated his forces against France, and exhausted all 
the means of persuasion with America. It is within 
the verge of possibility that his return to power 
might have induced the Americans to abandon. the 
treaty with France, and that would have meant the 
triumph of his policy. 

Before condemning Chatham's policy of war with 
France it must be remembered that the Bourbons 
had undoubtedly broken the laws of international 
comity. There could be no pretence that the revolt 
in the colonies had reached the stage when their re- 
cognition as an independent State could be justified ; 
there was no settled government and no absolute 
certainty of success. Was the insult to be passed by 
without resentment? What would have been the 
effect upon the spirit and character of the English 
nation if it had calmly accepted foreign dictation? 
So humiliating a decision at a moment of grave crisis 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire. 363 

would have lowered the courage of the people, it 
would have been a lasting precedent of weakness 
to which timid statesmen might have appealed in 
every succeeding crisis. To set prudence above 
high spirit, nicely to calculate the less and more 
of immediate expediency in moments of critical 
decision, to obey the maxims of quietude when 
others are straining in the race — these were not 
the counsels which had appealed to Englishmen 
or to any other great people. In the life of na- 
tions as in the life of men the loss that follows a 
weak decision may be greater than the loss that fol- 
lows defeat. 

The great majority of the English people realised 
that war was inevitable, and during the early months 
of 1778 there was great anxiety that Chatham should 
be called back to ofBce. Even Bute desired it, while 
Mansfield declared that without Chatham in com- 
mand the ship must go down, and North begged 
the King to allow him to resign and to send for the 
Opposition leader. " I see plainly," wrote Camden, 
" the public does principally look up to him, and 
such is the opinion of the world as to his ability to 
advise as well as execute in this perilous crisis, that 
they never will be satisfied with any change or ar- 
rangement where he is not among the first." The 
King with that stoutness of heart that never de- 
serted him was ready to face a war with France and 
Spain, but he obstinately declined to grant ofifice to 
Chatham except as a subordinate Minister to North. 
Nothing could move him from a fixed determination 
to allow no change which would make the adminis- 



364 William Pitt. [1772- 

tration independent of himself. "This episode," 
writes Mr. Lecky, " appears to me the most criminal 
in the whole reign of George III., and in my own 
judgment it is as criminal as any of those acts which 
led Charles I. to the scaffold." If Chatham had re- 
tained his health there can be little doubt that he 
would have been forced upon the King by Parlia- 
ment and the people, but the great life was nearing 
its end, and in the moment when she so much 
needed him, amidst the storm of foreign war and 
civil war and universal hostility, England was to be 
deprived of Chatham. 

It was on April 6, 1778, that the last great episode 
occurred, when Richmond proposed a motion in the 
Lords, the purport of which was that American 
independence should be immediately recognised. 
Chatham, though worn with illness, came down to 
the House for the last time. He was dressed in 
black, his body swathed in flannel, and supported by 
crutches, and on either side his son, William Pitt, 
and his son-in-law. Lord Mahon, assisted him to his 
place. As he entered, the peers made a lane for him 
to pass through, and he bowed to them with that 
regal courtliness for which he was famous. On his 
face was the pallor of death but the fire of genius 
shone in his eyes. " He looked like a dying man, 
yet never was seen a figure of more dignity ; he 
appeared like a being of a superior species." When 
Richmond had spoken, he rose slowly and with 
difificulty and, at first with low and feeble voice but 
afterwards with full resonance, he uttered his last 
words to the English people. 



1778] The Attempt to Save the Empire, 365 

" I rejoice that the grave has not closed upon me ; 
that I am still alive to lift up my voice against the dis- 
memberment of this ancient and most noble monarchy, 
. . . My Lords, his Majesty succeeded to an empire 
as great in extent as its reputation was unsullied. Shall 
we tarnish the lustre of this nation by an ignominious 
surrender of its rights and fairest possessions ? Shall 
this great kingdom now fall prostrate before the House 
of Bourbon ? Surely, my Lords, this nation is no longer 
what it was ! Shall a people that fifteen years ago was 
the terror of the world now stoop so low as to tell its 
ancient inveterate enemy, Take all we have, only give us 
peace. It is impossible ! " 

" In God's Name, if it is absolutely necessary to de- 
clare either for peace or war, and the former cannot be 
preserved with honour, why is not the latter commenced 
without hesitation ? I am not, I confess, well informed 
of the resources of this kingdom ; but I trust it has still 
sufficient to maintain its just rights though I know them 
not. But, my Lords, any state is better than despair. 
Let us at least make an effort ; and if we must fall, let 
us fall like men ! " 

Richmond made a brief reply, and Chatham rose 
again, but unable to utter a word he pressed his 
hand to his heart and sunk down in a swoon. He 
was carried unconscious to a house in Downing 
Street, and thence was removed to his villa at Hayes, 
where on May nth he breathed his last. One inci- 
dent of that last illness is recorded. He bade his 
son, with whom he had often studied the great litera- 
tures and histories of the master states, read from 
the Iliad the lines describing the burial of Hector 
and the sorrow of Troy. 



CHAPTER X. 

CHATHAM'S PERSONALITY AND HISTORICAL 
POSITION. 

THE personality of Chatham, which, viewed from 
a distance, inspired whole nations with awe, 
was enigmatical to those who knew him inti- 
mately, if indeed there were any who so knew him. 
Shelburne, of all contemporary politicians the keen- 
est in brain, saw much of Chatham in his private as 
well as public life. He amused himself by an analy- 
sis and dissection of Chatham's character, using the 
knife with the nerve of a surgeon, displaying the dis- 
eased and healthy organs with the composure of a 
scientist. It is a skilful microscopic study, but if we 
knew nothing of Chatham outside this record we 
should think of him as an incomparably effective 
actor, and should miss altogether that image of the 
victorious Minister, the patriot of lofty and disinter- 
ested virtue, which was impressed on the national 
mind. The intimate study of great men is proverb- 
ially disillusionising, but it is never certain that the 
intimate view is the right one. The riddle of Chat- 
ham's character is the contrast between the unques- 
tionable greatness of his public action and the 

366 



Personality and Historical Position. 367 

disturbing evidence of what seemed like pose and 
charlatanism. The very suspicion of charlatanism 
seems alien to true greatness, of which directness and 
simplicity are the most certain proofs. Yet Mr. 
Lecky, wdio credits Chatham with great disinterest- 
edness, great courage, great patriotism, united with 
an intense love of liberty, sums up his criticism in 
the remark : " Of all very great Englishmen, he is 
perhaps the one in whom there was the largest ad- 
mixture of the qualities of the charlatan." The 
judgment of the contemporary is more severe than 
that of the historian. ** Pitt was certainly above 
avarice, but as to everything else, he only repressed 
his desires and acted." It does not appear " that he 
went beyond what was necessary to satisfy the peo- 
ple, to secure his wished-for situation ; in truth it 
was his favourite maxim that ' a little new went a 
long way.' " "He did not cultivate men, because he 
felt it an incumbrance, and thought he could act 
with more advantage without the incumbrance of a 
party." " He passed his time studying words and 
expression, always with a view to throw the respons- 
ibility of every measure upon some other, while he 
held a high, pompous, unmeaning language. What 
took much from his character was that he was always 
made-up and never natural, in a perpetual state of 
exertion, incapable of friendship, or of any act which 
tended to it, and constantly upon the watch and 
never unbent." ** He knew the value of condescen- 
sion, and reserved himself for the moment when he 
was almost certain of gaining his point by it, till then 
he pranced and vapoured. He likewise mixed into his 



368 William Pitt. 



conduct strict honour in details, which I have often 
observed deceives many men in great affairs." ^ 

Shelburne was the ablest and most faithful of 
Chatham's political allies, and it is remarkable that he 
should have penned this rather bitter criticism upon 
his former chief. Possibly the recollection of interm- 
inable conversations producing no clear result ob- 
literated the memory of great actions. The habit of 
dilatory declamation was, says the Abbe Morellet, the 
reproach which those who knew him intimately 
brought against Lord Chatham. 

" Lord Shelburne has whispered it in my ear, and Mr. 
Franklin has told me a fact completely justifying this 
reproach. After several fruitless conferences with Lord 
Chatham on the Stamp Act, he asked for an interview in 
the country that he might propose certain modifications 
in the Act of Parliament Lord Chatham intended to in- 
troduce. . . . Franklin arrived at eight. Lord Chat- 
ham perorated till two o'clock without comprehending 
or concluding anything, and sent away the American 
deputy son papier a la main comnie il etait venu'' \ 

The Abbe, it may be noted, makes the same 
charge against both Burke and Fox. 

There was much in Chatham's conduct to invite 
such strictures as Shelburne makes. His own ideas 
about the dignity of statesmen were strained and 
theatrical ; the traditions that he never allowed an 
under-secretary to sit in his presence, and that he 

* Fitzmaurice's Shelburne^ i., 72. 

f From a paper on English Parties in 1784, MS. ; I am indebted 
to Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice for this extract. 



Personality and Historical Positio7i. 369 

always conducted public business in full dress, are 
instances of these ideas. There was extravagant 
ostentation in his mode of life, in his patriarchal re- 
tinue, and in that celebrated advertisement of a Min- 
ister's coach and horses for sale, which enlivened the 
town after his resignation in 1761. He was alive to 
anything dramatic in his own situation, and never 
failed to make the best of his part. The very names 
he bestows on himself in his correspondence, " the 
Somersetshire hermit," "your village friend," '^ a 
strange new creature," a " leader whom nobody fol- 
lows," show that Chatham was one of those who 
follow with sensibility the vicissitudes of their own 
career, and watch with sympathy their own action 
in the world of men. It was the grandiose aspect of 
things which possessed his mind ; a gorgeous accre- 
tion of picturesque imagery surrounded the institu- 
tions of the State. Marlborough, it is said, learned 
English history out of Shakespeare, and the imagin- 
ative view, the ardent sentiment of the past, im- 
pressed the mind of Chatham. The book, he said, 
which had taught him most was Plutarch. When 
he spoke in Parliament the tradition of that assem- 
bly, its past battles, its great men, its share in the 
making of England, were never forgotten ; when he 
knelt before the King, and burst into tears over the 
gracious condescension of George III., it was the 
majesty of an ancient throne that oppressed and 
overpowered his mind. This dramatic view of polit- 
ical life makes Chatham unique among English pub- 
lic men, who for the most part have governed their 

conduct by pedestrian rules. In him it was perfectly 
24 



370 William Pitt, 



sincere, and explained both his extravagant pride 
and his extravagant humility. If, from time to time, 
Chatham may have been led into extravagance and 
even absurdity in obedience to the demands of van- 
ity and an exorbitant pride, if he was imperious, 
unaccommodating, and flagrantly contemptuous of 
the pride and vanity of other men ; if, in his later 
years he secluded himself, as it were, on the cloudy 
summit of Olympus, whence he issued edicts and 
decrees, these failings and idiosyncrasies were more 
than balanced by his peculiar virtues. He was 
strong enough to carry the burden of heavier faults. 
If he was ambitious it was for England, if he was 
despotic it was in the cause of freedom ; modern 
degeneracy had not touched him, he was of strong 
will and of definite mind, born not to obey but to 
rule, to lead a nation, to mould a people, to act in 
great crises as the instrument of fate. His person- 
ality was not distinctively of his time or country and 
it has often been remarked that in force, will, and 
ambition he belonged rather to the Rome of Brutus 
than to the England of Walpole or North. The 
thunders of his eloquence might have shaken the 
Forum, his invective might have withered another 
Catiline, his will might have controlled the Roman 
legionaries. He belongs indeed to that small class 
who are recognised not as the greatest of mankind, 
but as best fitted to lead and control in emer- 
gencies, when the minds of men are perplexed by 
change or fear, and to accomplish some destined 
end. ''The more a man is versed in business," said 
Chatham in a sentence that throws light on his 



Personality and Historical Position. 3 7 1 

character, *' the more he sees the hand of Providence. 
There is no such thing as Chance; it is the unac- 
countable name of nothing." That consciousness of 
Providence Chatham shared with every other whose 
action has shaped the affairs of men — with Caesar and 
Napoleon, with Alexander and Attila. 

It is never possible to proportion exactly the influ- 
ence of any one man, still less to say that if one man 
had not lived his work would have been left undone. 
Stronger than the impact of any single will is the 
steady, continuous, and cumulative effect of social 
forces, which prepare the way for changes and de- 
velopments that seem sometimes sudden and start- 
ling. The results of the war which was conducted 
by Chatham and by Frederick the Great are properly 
to be traced back to the racial characteristics of 
England and Prussia, but without the genius as 
Minister and the genius as King, these results could 
not have been won. The true measure of Chatham's 
capacity as a War Minister is in the comparison of 
his results with those which the British forces ob- 
tained in the earlier war of the Austrian Succession, 
and in the later American war. In all three wars the 
resources at the disposal of Great Britain were ap- 
proximately equal ; in the Austrian war the navy 
won victories but made no conquests, and the army 
was of little value, while in the American war the 
command of the sea was only retrieved by Rodney's 
great but fortunate victory after the French and 
Spanish fleets had actually commanded the Channel, 
and the disposition of both the naval and military 
forces in America made the colonial triumph a more 



372 William Pitt, 



easy affair than it should have been. Such compar- 
isons cannot be exact, but they at least prove the 
truth of which Chatham's Ministry is perhaps the 
most striking example in all history, that in the con- 
duct of great wars the Minister in command is almost 
as important as the bravery of troops and the efifi- 
ciency of arms. As without Bismarck there might 
have been no entry into Paris, so without Chatham 
there might have been no fall of Quebec. The bur- 
den of the war was exclusively borne by Chatham ; 
it was directed not by a council, but by him alone, 
and the most minute details as well as the general 
plans were settled by him. It was such a war as the 
history of nations could not parallel in the extent of 
its area and the variety of its operations. To the 
necessary qualities of method, exactness and punct- 
uality in administration, the Minister added the 
power of inspiring heroism, of conceiving great 
plans, of steeling and indurating the national will. 
Nor was the restraint of parsimony, a dangerous 
virtue when great schemes are pending, allowed to 
narrow the foundations of an Empire. A contemp- 
orary said that England should be grateful to Chat- 
ham, since she owed him at least seventy millions of 
the National Debt, and it is true that he cared little 
about ways and means ; he knew that millions could 
be raised, and that they would be well spent, and he 
felt a curious exultation in the thought that he was 
spending more profusely than any Englishman of the 
past. Those who read again the debates of 1761 
and 1762 will find that this expenditure was the 
chief topic among those whose main business and 



Personality and Historical Position. 373 

delight was to depreciate the fame of the ex-Minis- 
ter. There exists for example a plausible discourse 
by Rigby, in which he argued that the urgent neces- 
sities of national economy demanded that England 
should not keep her conquests.* The course of time 
has made the defence of Chatham's expenditure a 
work of supererogation ; the destruction of the rival 
power in India and America has proved no niggardly 
return to an investment of seventy millions. 

The Seven Years' War was the central and decisive 
campaign in the long war between England and 
France which began under William III., and ended 
under Wellington. The dominant consideration un- 
derlying this long rivalry was a consideration of trade; 
men fought for colonial expansion and for command 
of the sea because on these depended a great com- 
merce. Of all the statesmen who have directed the 
destinies of England, who have formed the ruling 
political ideas of the nation, from Burleigh and Crom- 
well downwards, no one realised this more clearly 
than Chatham. '' England fighting for her trade," 
said he, " is fighting in the last ditch." Before this 
war England was one of the three great European 
Powers ; her supremacy at sea was acknowledged, but 
in America and the West Indies her possessions were 
not greater than those of France, while in India the 
French power was greater. At the close of, the war 
the English naval power had been so demonstrated 
that there was a universal jealousy and alarm in 
Europe comparable to that created by the threaten- 
ing supremacy of Louis XIV. France in America 

* Walpole, Memoirs of George III., i., io6. 



374 William Pitt. 



had been narrowed into Louisiana and two small 
shelters for the fishermen off Newfoundland ; in the 
West Indies she had been allowed to retain both 
Guadaloupe and Martinique ; in India the actual 
terms of the peace were of less importance than the 
fact that France acknowledged herself beaten in 
Bengal, and by her treatment of Lally, her general in 
the Carnatic, gave evidence that the career of the 
Indian adventurer was no stepping-stone to favour 
in Paris. The French retained indeed, and still re- 
tain, that square foot of territory which Choiseul 
besought Montcalm to hold in Canada, and so long 
as they possessed Mauritius no opportunity of harass- 
ing the English power in India was lost, but the ver- 
dict of Chatham's war has never been reversed. 
Even the Titanic genius of Napoleon, whose master 
ambition it was to do for France against England 
what Chatham had done for England against France, 
failed irretrievably to redress the balance. It is 
doubtful whether any war has produced greater re- 
sults for the human race. The immediate result was 
to make England the most powerful of nations, and 
although the great schism after the American revolt 
diminished her power, it yet stands true that the 
British people possess two Empires which were won 
between 1756 and 1763. It is impossible to calcu- 
late the influence on the character of the race wrought 
by the rule of India ; the commerce and wealth it 
ensures is the least of its benefits, the greatest is per- 
haps the practice in the art of disinterested govern- 
ment, the responsible treatment of complicated 
problems, the habit at once of obedience and com- 



Personality and Historical Position. 375 

mand. The Indian Empire is as nnuch a military 
despotism as any of the subject provinces of Rome, 
but it is administered in the interests of those who 
have no voice in the decision of its affairs. It is an 
absolutism tempered by the principles of Bentham. 
The transference of Canada from France to England 
was in some aspects an even more remarkable result 
of the war ; the French had been settled there for a 
century and a half, and it is doubtful if the thought 
of conquering their whole dominion had been se- 
riously entertained by any statesman however 
sanguine. It is often said that the first result of de- 
stroying the French power on the St. Lawrence was 
to invite the independence of the British colonies. 
This theory overlooks the fact that when the British 
colonies were fighting for independence, Canada 
was actually in the hands of the mother country, 
and therefore hostile, whereas if it had still been 
French it would have been an ally. The colonists 
could not have defeated the French without English 
aid, and so long as they feared French encroachment 
they needed the naval protection which England 
gave, but if after the war Canada had remained 
French, it is improbable that the Canadians would 
have assisted the English Government in a quarrel, 
and even if Canada were hostile, a hostile French 
Canada was no more to be feared by the Americans 
than a hostile British Canada. Nevertheless the 
British conquest of Canada has deeply affected the 
character and development of the American Repub- 
lic; if a French dominion had existed across the St. 
Lawrence, the United States could hardly have 



376 William Pitt. 



maintained so long that abstinence from European 
complications which has encouraged the emigration 
of men from all the old States and has made its 
population the most cosmopolitan in the world. 
Moreover, that ideal of policy which is called the 
Monroe Doctrine, embodying as it does an extensive 
and peculiar claim by the United States to preserve 
the New World from further encroachments by the 
Old, could never have been suggested by an English 
statesman, as it was, and would have proved infinitely 
more difficult of application, if a distinctively foreign 
Power had ruled the great northern dominion. The 
existence side by side of a British colony and a 
Republic separated from Britain, has been in the past 
a cause of friction, in the future it is still possible 
that it may be a cause of strife, but more probably 
the common sentiments of race will survive even the 
dividing memories of civil war. The English-speak- 
ing races possess in North America a sphere of 
influence and action that ensures for them a predomi- 
nance among mankind, far more certain because the 
continent, however mixed its population, is governed 
from north to south on those principles of freedom, 
order, and progress, which won their way in the 
England of the seventeenth century. 

As in India and America so in Europe, the war 
marked an era of incalculable importance. If the 
generalship of Ferdinand and the armies of Fred- 
erick assisted the conquest of Canada, the alliance of 
England under Pitt saved Prussia from annihilation. 
Not a single hamlet changed its allegiance as a 
result of all the battles that were fought, but Prussia's 



Personality and HistoiHcal Position. 2)77 

heroic struggle paved the way for its great place 
among the nations. It had survived the attack of 
an unexampled coalition because the most powerful 
member of that coalition was engaged on sea and 
land by the forces of Great Britain. The German 
race found in Prussia a new centre of leadership and 
allegiance, and the House of Austria had found an 
unconquerable rival. But it was France whose posi- 
tion was chiefly affected by the war. The loss of 
India and Canada by France ruined the far-seeing 
plans of Colbert ; it transferred to England ad- 
vantages the full extent of which could not then be 
appreciated. When the discoveries of science annihi- 
lated distance, and by multiplying the value of colo- 
nies revolutionised the policy of nations, it was the 
fortune of England already to possess an Empire. 
The wars of the eighteenth century had provided a 
solution of the problems of the following years ; had 
found new lands for an overflowing population, new 
markets for commerce, and new incentives against 
national exhaustion. Not until the insatiate rivalry 
of the last fifty years began could the gains of Eng- 
land and losses of France in the Seven Years* War 
be fully measured. 

Thus, as the history of mankind unfolds, the inter- 
national results of that administration by which Pitt 
raised England from despair to exaltation are seen 
to be ever greater. That is his certain title to un- 
dying fame. His influence in the sphere of domes- 
tic politics cannot be found in definite achievements, 
but must be sought rather in the vaguer region of 
sentiment and opinion. He was the very opposite 



378 William Pitt, 



of a scientific statesman ; his knowledge was not 
exact or comprehensive, but was confined to a few 
great principles, to what he called the Bible of Eng- 
lish politics, which he reverenced as the necessary 
and sufficient charter of faith. Details were matters 
of business which he grasped clearly enough when 
in office, or when expounding any specific scheme, 
but his attention was given first to the principles 
involved. This was a period when problems of in- 
ternal government were less agitated than problems 
of national policy, when the industrial revolution 
with its inevitable accompaniment of a State organ- 
ised on democratic lines was not accomplished. 
Chatham is not to be credited with any prophetic 
foresight into the future ; his whole nature was made 
for the high duty of leading the nation in times of 
peril, not for the patient and careful handling of 
complicated problems. But his career, with its sov- 
ereignty over the w^hole people, was a preparation for 
the democratic revolution. He welded together the 
United Kingdom, evoking the loyalty of Scotland, 
seeking the reconciliation of Ireland, and raised so 
high the pride and spirit of nationality that the deep 
wounds inflicted by the Stuart troubles were at last 
healed. Cromwell had been to many a hated 
usurper, the glories of Marlborough had been 
exploited in the interests of faction, Walpole had re- 
garded the Whig party as the nation, but under Pitt 
England forgot her divisions. " He was a Minister 
given by the people to the King," and there was 
magic in that fact. In the midst of a period when 
what Disraeli called the Venetian Constitution was 



Personality and Historical Position. 379 

at its zenith, when government was the perquisite of 
a Teutonic monarch, an aristocratic junto, and a 
corrupt Parhament, there appears this dazzling and 
supreme career of one who affronted venal Parlia- 
mentarians by his contemptuous honesty, who was 
separated by a great gulf from the aristocrats who 
mouthed the commonplaces of civil and religious 
liberty while they ruled a kingdom in the interests 
of a party, a politician who had " never read Wicque- 
fort," never visited Lady Yarmouth till he was fifty, 
never hesitated to express an unflattering view of 
Herrenhausen and German Electors. If Pitt had 
done no more than grasp power there would be 
reason to remember a life that with no adventitious 
advantage ended at so great an elevation. What 
forces could he draw upon ? The days of a press 
that could focus attention upon a brilliant person- 
ality were not yet come ; the era of party organisa- 
tion, of a public opinion guided and informed by 
widespread associations, had not dawned. It is 
comparatively easy for a man of force and persist- 
ency to capture the machine, but in Pitt's day the 
machine was not invented. It was not an age in 
which careers were open to talent, but genius made 
itself felt ; it was not a revolutionary period when 
leaders were urgently sought, but Pitt's voice pene- 
trated the closed door of Parliament and reached the 
ears of the people. 

By appealing to the people, by incarnating in 
himself their power, and by making that power su- 
preme, Chatham had disturbed the equipoise of 
the aristocratic system by introducing a new and 



380 William Pitt. 



ultimately paramount force. He was gifted with the 
qualities of popular leadership ; an instinctive sym- 
pathy with national feeling — that national feeling 
which induces in many men only an obstinate re- 
pugnance — a definite mind, a strong will, an im- 
perious nature, a fearless invective, an oratory that 
embellished his profound and passionate patriotism. 
Although the debates in Parliament were only 
roughly reported, it is easy to understand how the 
pith of his speeches would be known throughout the 
nation ; often we find that the sentiment of his 
great orations is expressed in some stirring phrase 
such as could be remembered by the people. The 
character of his oratory does not lend itself to liter- 
ary disquisition ; it was born in the hour of strenuous 
debate, as fire from iron, and less than any other 
oratory that is remembered does it smell of the 
lamp. An invective unequalled among the moderns, 
an invective that struck down the proudest of his 
contemporaries, a scorn that withered, a passion 
that scorched — even to-day the effect and force of 
these powers are not vanished from the pages which 
contain his words. That Chatham practised himself 
in that art of which he was so consummate a master 
is probable: he would not look on a bad print lest 
it should corrupt his taste ; he remembered Demos- 
thenes, and doubtless, as a sensible man, he studied 
the temper of his audience and knew how to produce 
his effects. But his prepared orations were, com- 
paratively speaking, failures, and it was only when 
his blood was stirred, when his scorn or anger was 
roused, when art was forgotten and nature spoke, 



Personality and Historical Position. 381 

that the true extent of his powers was displayed and 
his Promethean eloquence thrilled and subjugated 
all who heard. " When I am on my feet I speak 
everything that is in my mind," he said. Others 
have surpassed him in the forensic art of pleading, 
in the rhetorical art, and in literary graces, but Chat- 
ham, speaking everything that was in his mind, was 
the greatest antagonist in debate the British Parlia- 
ment has known. 

While the persuasive part of his speech was a 
kind of consummate conversation, expressed in sent- 
ences clear, simple, forceful, of an admirable rhythm, 
there were moments of sublimity and inspiration 
such as no other English orator has known, daring 
flights of imagination that held his audience with 
suspended breath. *' His words," said Lyttleton, 
'* have sometimes frozen my young blood into stag- 
nation, and sometimes have made it pace in such a 
hurry through my veins that I could scarce support 
it." Grattan said finely, " Great subjects, great em- 
pires, great characters, effulgent ideas, and classical 
illustrations, formed the material of his speeches." 
A natural loftiness of mind was his most character- 
istic virtue ; it was at times clouded over by passion 
and rivalry, but he loved best the contemplation of 
serious and noble things. It is clear from the de- 
tached sentences in his handwriting found among 
his papers that religion was to him a matter not 
merely of outward observance but of his innermost 
thought."^ There were no doubt histrionic elements 
in his nature, but a profound sincerity was the true 

"^Chatham Correspondence^ iv., App. 3. 



382 William Pitt. 



spring of his actions. He would have been still 
greater if all his conduct had been marked by per- 
fect simplicity, but though his motives may have 
been obscured so that even Burke misunderstood 
them, they were of a noble kind. It was with genu- 
ine relief, if with an ostentation of Stoical content, 
that he laid his greatness by and sought relief and 
rest in a home where he could put his armour on 
one side and teach his children to love God and 
their country ; it was by a supreme effort against the 
exhaustion of age and infirmity that he returned 
to warn his country against the awful destiny of 
separation. 

Two phrases of his own best illustrate his character 
and his career. He speaks of that sense of honour 
which '* makes ambition virtue," and he writes of 
those " who, wherever they are, carry their country 
along with them in their breast. I mean those feel- 
ings for its general honour, and those large and com- 
prehensive sentiments for the common happiness of 
the whole, which everywhere, and more particularly 
in our island, constitute alone just patriotism.'* 
Chatham, dying in the midst of the Civil War he 
had tried to avert, is the last of those great men 
whom England and America can both claim ; to 
both States he rendered signal service, and not the 
least part of that service is the memory of a nature 
moulded in the very form of honour, an eloquence 
never suborned to mean causes, a lover of his nation 
who immeasurably strengthened her power and 
elevated the ideals of her public life. 



^^"^^J 




,^~^ 



APPENDIX. 

THE FAMILY COMPACT OF 1761. 

THE one " historical mystery " in connection with 
Lord Chatham is the question how far he knew 
the terms of the secret treaty arranged between 
France and Spain in August, 1761, at the time of his 
resignation in October, 1761. There is a tradition that 
he had secret information, and imparted that informa- 
tion to the Cabinet. An article in the Quarterly Review^ 
October, 1899, suggests that this information was re- 
ceived through Louis Dutens, secretary to the British 
embassy at Naples, where knowledge of Spanish plans 
might very probably be obtained. A copy of the treaty 
in the Newcastle papers is said, by the writer of this ar- 
ticle, to bear marks of having passed through Pitt's 
office in Cleveland Row. I am unable to judge the 
probability of the last statement, but from other evid- 
ence I find it difficult to believe that Pitt placed before 
the Cabinet any exact information concerning the treaty. 
If he possessed the information himself, he must surely 
have imparted it to his colleagues. In published me- 
moirs there is little evidence, but the Newcastle Papers 
contain much that bears directly and indirectly upon 
the question. It was known that a treaty between 

383 



3S4 Willia^n Pitt. 



France and Spain existed, but not that a breach with 
Great Britain and the invasion of Portugal were con- 
templated. 

In his memorandum on the Cabinet of September 18, 
1761, Newcastle mentions "Intercepted letters from 
Fuentes and Grimaldi," and " The Cojivenfion signed the 
15th of August only."* But that nothing more than 
the probability of an intimate union between France and 
Spain had been disclosed is clear from the questions 
Hardwicke invites Newcastle to put to Stanley in his 
letter of September 30th, f At the next Cabinet of Oc- 
tober 2d, Newcastle says that Pitt referred to " the 
papers he had in his bag (meaning my Lord Bristol's let- 
ter and Mr. Wall's paper). "J This must have been 
Bristol's letter of August 31st, which contained the ac- 
counts of Wall's admission that France had " spontane- 
ously offered to unite her forces with those of Spain to 
prevent English encroachments in America on Spanish 
territory." Pitt may have used this admission as an ar- 
gument that Spain meant war, but if he had possessed 
secret information would he not have lain other papers 
before the Cabinet ? On October 13th, Hardwicke tells 
Newcastle that he has seen Pitt. *' I observed that he 
did not assert the resolution of Spain to declare war 
against us nearly so strong as he did at the Council ; 
but put it upon their secret union with France, and that 
they would assist France with money underhand." § 
On October 20th, Newcastle has seen the Spanish ambas- 
sador : " I asked him whether they intended to break 
with us. He did not directly answer the question, but 
talked as if that could not be their intention as their 



*Add. MSS. 32928, f. 228. 

\ Ibid., f. 440. \ Ibid,, 32929, f. 18. %Ibid., 32929, f. 227. 



Appendix, 385 

conduct had showed, notwithstanding their Family- 
Treaty of 1743, which, he said, the last time I saw him, 
contained all the stipulations in this treaty with regard 
to their reciprocal engagements." * On December ist 
the Comte de Mello, Portuguese ambassador to the 
Court of St. James's, communicated the news that 
France, Spain, and Naples had made a secret treaty, to 
which they demanded Portugal's accession, with the in- 
tention of closing the ports of the four nations against 
Great Britain. This was of course the secret design 
which Pitt dreaded, but it is placed beyond doubt that 
he did not communicate intelligence of it to his col- 
leagues when we read Newcastle's comment upon this 
disclosure. " Our affairs with Spain seem bad. I think 
Mello' s account can't be true'^ f 

The truth seems to be that, without special or secret 
knowledge, Pitt judged the future of Spanish policy bet- 
ter than his colleagues. There were indications visible 
to all the Ministers that France and Spain were united. 
Pitt declared that this meant war ; his colleagues would 
not be convinced. When the rupture had come, Hard- 
wicke made the following comment : " I am now con- 
vinced that the intercepted letter in the summer from 
Choiseul to D'Avrincourt in cypher, wherein mention 
was made of training on the negotiations between Eng- 
land and France till the latter end of September, when 
the flota should be arrived, deserved more weight to be 
laid upon it than we were willing to allow it at that 
time." X This letter from Choigeul explains Pitt's eager- 
ness to declare war on Spain before the flota of silver 
ships should arrive. 



* Add. MSS. 32929, f. 406. 

f Ibid., 32931, f. 425. X Ibid,, 32932, f. 367. 




INDEX. 



Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of (1748), 

43 
America, French and English in, 

65-69 ; seven years' war in, 
114-116, 128-133, 139-145, 
159; Revolution in, 219-233, 
243-265, 297-300, 333-365 
Anson, Admiral Lord, loi, 328 
Augusta, wife of Frederick, 
Prince of Wales, 49, 72, 89, 
164 

B 

Barre, Colonel, 231, 264 
Beckford, Ardaman, 154, 204, 

250 
Bedford, John, fourth Duke of, 

44, 94, 195, 215, 234, 289, 

291, 302, 305, 336 
Bolingbroke, Lord, 9, 32, 34 
Boscawen, Admiral, 68, 129- 

131, 148 
Braddock, General, 68 
Burke, Edmund, 185, 237, 265, 

284, 306, 310, 325, 333, 351 
Bussy, de, 168 
Bute, Lord, 89, 164, 182, 187, 

190, 194, 208, 234, 273, 279, 

289, 318, 363 
Byng, Admiral, 86, 95 

C 

Camden, Lord, see Pratt 
Carteret, afterward Earl Gran- 
ville, 8, 19, 24, 28, 37, 92, 183, 
196, 328 



Catherine II. of Russia, 277 
Choiseul, Due de, 138, 145, 157, 

167, 197, 275, 280, 328 
Clive, Robert, Lord, 116, 126, 

160 
" Cobham Cousinhood," 9, 10, 43 
Cobham, Lord, 11, 42 
Conway, Mr., 231, 235, 239, 249, 

271, 282 
Coote, Sir Eyre, 162 
Corsica, French purchase of, 327 
Cumberland, Duke of, 42, 49, 99, 

118, 122, 198, 202, 234, 249 

D 

Dashwood, Sir Francis, 166, 209 
Delaney, Daniel, 260 
Devonshire, William, fourth 

Duke of, 93, 100, 183, 198, 

203, 213 
Doddington, Bubb, afterward 

Lord Melcombe, 32 

E 

Egremont, Lord, 188, 211 
Elizabeth, Czarina of Russia, 84, 
88, 103, 157, 167 



Family Compact, 16, 17, 82, 383 

Ferdinand, Prince, 11 1, 123, 134, 
149, 155, 159 

Fontenoy, battle of, 35 

Fox, • Henry, afterward Lord 
Holland, 5, 44, 45, 51, 59, 64, 
72, 90, 93, 100, 198, 204 



387 



388 



Index, 



Franklin, Benjamin, 230, 246, 
338, 345, 348, 352, 368 

Frederick, Prince of Wales, 9, 
13, 20, 43, 49 

Frederick II., King of Prussia, 
30, 35, 83, 88, 98, 103, 117, 
123, 136, 151, 159, 194, 278 



Guadaloupe, 145 

George II., 24, 37, 162 

George III., 163, 182, 190, 192, 
213, 263, 267, 274, 291, 303, 
306, 312, 319, 334, 344, 353, 

363 
Gibraltar, 120 
Glover, Richard, 19, 20 
Goree, 136, 196 
Grafton, Duke of, 233, 236, 239, 

249, 262, 270, 282, 300, 305, 

311, 336 

Grenville, George, 10, 19, 42, 87, 
94, 114, 187, 198, 209, 213, 
219, 227, 234, 249, 252, 255, 
273, 297, 305, 310 

Grenville, Lady Hester, after- 
ward Countess of Chatham, 

58, 185 

H 

Halifax, Lord, 211 

Hardwicke, Lord, 23, 55, 70, 90, 
182, 202, 213, 266 

Hawke, Admiral Lord, 148, 152 

Highlanders, Scottish, enlist- 
ment of, 97 

Holderness, Lord, 94, 99, 100, 
166 

I 

India, French and English in, 
65 ; Seven Years' War in, 116, 
117, 160-162 ; Government of, 
280-283 

Ireland, Government of , 283-285 



Jacobite rising, 35-37 



"Jenkins's Ear," war of, 7, 15 
Johnson, Samuel, 18, 232, 237, 
330 



K 



Kaunitz, 70, 81, 84, 105 
Keene, Sir Benjamin, 207 
Kloster-Severn, Convention of, 
118-120 



Lally, 161 

Legge, Henry, 54, 70, 73, 75, 94, 

166 
" Leicester Home Party," 13, 50, 

72 
Lexington, battle of, 353 
Louis XV., King of France, 84, 

103 
Louisburg, 130 
Lyttleton, George, Lord, 5, 10, 

12, 19, 54, 56, 61, 75, 99, 214, 

236 



M 



Mansfield, Lord, j^^ Murray 
Maria Theresa, Queen of Hun- 
gary, 29, 34, 83, 88, 103, 167 
Marlborough, Sarah, Duchess 

of, 33 
Militia, English, 78, 97 
Minden, battle of, 149 
Mitchell, Sir Andrew, 102 
Montcalm, Marquis de, 88, 114, 

131, 140 
Morellet, I'Abbe, 368 
Murray, afterward Lord Mans- 
field, 26, 50, 61, 89, 183, 204, 
249, 306, 314, 318, 363 



N 



Newcastle, Holies, Duke of, 23, 
39, 47, 55, 62, 70, 86, 89, 100, 
112, 156, 182, 189, 202, 213, 
236, 242 

North, Lord, 305, 312, 340, 359 



Index. 



389 



Pelham, Henry, 23, 30, 42, 47 

Pitt, Governor, 1-4 

Pitt, Robert, 1-4 

Pitt, William, first Earl of Chat- 
ham, birth and descent, 1-4 ; 
education, 4-5 ; enters army 
and House of Commons, 6 ; 
his maiden speech, 11 ; dis- 
missed from the army, ii; op- 
position to Walpole, 12-14 ; 
attitude on Spanish war and 
the Family Compact, 13-18 ; 
his conduct after the fall of 
Walpole, 19-23 ; his attacks 
upon Carteret and the Hano- 
verians, 30-32 ; his accommo- 
dation with the Pelhams, 33 ; 
legacy from the Duchess of 
Marlborough, 33 ; he becomes 
Paymaster-General, 37-41 ; re- 
lation with the Grenvilles, 
42-43 ; rivalry with Fox, 44 ; 
his opinions on ecclesiastical 
policy, 46 ; his claims to lead- 
ing the Commons on Pelham's 
death, 47-51 ; his advice to 
" the Brotherhood," 53 ; his 
despair of promotion, 54-55 ; 
his marriage, 58 ; his opposi- 
tion to Newcastle, 60-64 \ to 
Hessian and Russian subsi- 
dies, 70-72 ; his attack on the 
union of Newcastle and Fox, 
74 ; dismissed from office, 75 ; 
he supports a national militia, 
78-80 ; he opposes Anglo- 
Prussian alliance, 84 ; he de- 
clines office under Newcastle, 
90-93 ; he forms a Ministry 
with the Duke of Devonshire, 
93-95 ; he attempts to save 
Byng, 95-97 ; his war meas- 
ures, 97 ; his relations with 
the Tories, 99 ; dismissed from 
office, 100 ; he unites with 
Newcastle, loi ; his character 
as War Minister, 108-112 ; his 
action in the Kloster-Severn 



convention, 119-120; heoffers 
Gibraltar to Spain, 120-122 ; 
appoints Prince Ferdinand to 
command the Hanover army, 
124 ; his plans for 1758, 127 ; 
adopts the German war as part 
of his scheme, 135 ; his plans 
for 1759, 139; scheme of de- 
fence against French invasion, 
147 ; his speech in November, 
1759. 154; his suspicion of 
Spanish policy, 157 ; his plans 
for 1760, 159 ; his position on 
the death of George II., 162- 
165 ; his negotiations for peace 
with France, 167-179 ; his 
advice of war against Spain, 
180 ; his speech to the Cabi- 
net, 184 ; resignation, 185 ; 
supports Ministers in war 
against Spain, 187-190 ; his 
speech on the peace of Paris, 
200-208 ; negotiations with 
Bute, 212-215 ; on the case of 
Wilkes and general warrants, 
216-219 ; receives two legacies, 
233 ; negotiations with the 
Whigs (May, 1765), 234-236 ; 
with the Rockingham Minis- 
try, 241-243 ; his American 
policy, 244, 250 ; he declines 
union with Rockingham, 250, 
263, 265 ; his speech against 
the Stamp Act, 252-262 ; op- 
poses the Declaratory Act, 
265 ; forms a new Ministry, 

268 ; breach with Temple, 

269 ; with Rockingham, 271 ; 
is created Earl of Chatham, 
273 ; attempts an alliance with 
Russia and Prussia against 
France, 275-280 ; his views on 
the government of India, 280- 
2S2 ; on Ireland, 283-285 ; his 
first speech in the House of 
Lords, 286 ; his unfortunate 
negotiations with influential 
politicians, 288-293 ; his ill- 
ness ends his personal share 
in the government, 294-295 ; 



390 



Index. 



Pitt, William — Continued 

his opinion on American re- 
sistance, 298-299 ; his inter- 
view with Grafton, 301 ; his 
resignation of the Privy Seal, 
303 ; his return to active poli- 
tics and alliance with Rock^ 
ingham, 306-310 ; his opinion 
on Burke's Present Discon- 
tents^ 310 ; on the Middlesex 
election, 314-317 ; attacks 
Mansfield and Bute, 318 ; de- 
clares in favour of Triennial 
Parliaments, 322 ; his ideas on 
Parliamentary reform, 322- 

325 ; defence of Dissenters, 

326 ; speech on the Falkland 
Islands dispute, 328 ; the 
principles of naval defence, 
329 ; opposes dispatch of 
troops to Boston, 337 ; his 
view of the " Boston Tea 
Party," 340 ; advocates leni- 
ency, 342 ; moves for the re- 
call of troops from Boston, 
345 ; his plan for settling the 
troubles in America, 347-352 ; 
his withdrawal from public 
life (Feb., 1775-May, 1777), 
352 ; forbids his son to serve 
against the Americans, 353 ; 
his opinion in July, 1776, 354 ; 
moves an address for cessation 
of hostilities, 356-358 ; his 
invective against the employ- 
ment of Indians, 358 ; his 
policy after the American alli- 
ance with France, 360-363 ; 
public anxiety for his return 
to power, 363 ; his last speech, 
364 ; his death, 365 ; his per- 
sonality considered, 366-371 ; 
international results of his 
great administration, 371-377; 
his career a preparation for the 
democratic revolution, 378 ; 
character of his oratory, 380 ; 
his supposed knowledge of the 
Family Compact of 1761, 383- 
385. 



Pompadour, La, 88, 107 

Pratt, afterwards Lord Camden, 

loi, 212, 241, 260, 264, 270, 

305, 311, 363 
Pulteney, afterwards Lord Bath, 

8, 12, 19, 38, 191 



Quebec, siege of, 142 
Quiberon Bay, 152 



R 



Richmond, Duke of, 266, 272, 

287, 333, 364 
Robinson, Sir Thomas, 51, 58, 

60 
Rochefort, expedition against, 

122 
Rockingham, Marquis of, 213, 

233, 235, 238, 249, 262, 271, 

284, 291, 302, 305, 308, 316, 

333, 360 
Rossbach, battle of, 124 



Sackville, Lord George, 150, 356 
Saratoga, 356 
Saunders, Admiral, 143 
Shelburne, Lord, 4, 198, 215, 

250, 271, 282, 284, 300, 304, 

306, 333, 354, 366 
Smith, Adam, 225-226 
Stanley, Hans, 168, 182, 277 
Supplies voted for the war under 

Pitt, 97, 127, 138, 155, 165 



Temple, Lord, 10, 42, 75, 94, 
100, 180, 235, 263, 269, 304 

Townshend, Charles, 166, 236, 
249, 271, 282, 292, 294, 299, 
305 



Vergennes, M. de, 354 



Index, 



391 



w 

Walpole, Sir Robert, afterwards 
Earl of Orford, 6, 7, 10, 17, 
19 

Walpole, Horace, the elder, af- 
terward Lord Walpole, 18 

Walpole, Horace, the younger, 
22, 51, 218, 268, 289 

Westminster, Treaty of (1756), 
84 



Wilkes, John, 210, 216, 312 
Williams, Charles Hanbury, 5, 

83 
Wolfe, General, 122, 129, 139, 

144 
Wyndham, Sir William, 8 



Yarmouth, Lady, 91 




Heroes of the Nations. 



EDITED BY 



EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A., 
Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. 



A Series of biographical studies of the lives and work 
of a number of representative historical characters about 
whom have gathered the great traditions of the Nations 
to which they belonged, and who have been accepted, in 
many instances, as types of the several National ideals. 
With the life of each typical character will be presented 
a picture of the National conditions surrounding him 
during his career. 

The narratives are the work of writers who are recog- 
nized authorities on their several subjects, and, while 
thoroughly trustworthy as history, will present picturesque 
and dramatic " stories " of the Men and of the events con- 
nected with them. 

To the Life of each " Hero ** will be given one duo- 
decimo volume, handsomely printed in large type, pro- 
vided with maps and adequately illustrated according to 
the special requirements of the several subjects. The 
volumes will be sold separately as follows : 

Large 12°, cloth extra . . . • • • $1 50 
Half morocco, uncut edges, gilt top • • * I 75 



HEROES OF THE NATIONS. 



A series of biographical studies of the lives and work of 
certain representative historical characters, about whom have 
gathered the great traditions of the Nations to which they 
belonged, and who have been accepted, in many instances, as 
types of the several National ideals. 

The volumes will be sold separately as follows : cloth extra, 
$1.50 ; half leather, uncut edges, gilt top, $1=75. 

The following are now ready : 



NELSON. By W. Clark Russell. 
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. By C. 

R. L. Fletcher. 
PERICLES. By Evelyn Abbott. 
THEODORIC THE GOTH. By 

Thomas Hodgkin. 
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. By. H. R. 

Fox-Bourne. 
JULIUS C-ffiJSAR. By W. Warde 

Fowler. 
WYCLIF. By Lewis Sergeant. 
NAPOL'EON. By W. O'Connor Mor- 
ris. 
HENRY OF NAVARRE. By P. F. 

WiUert. 
CICERO. By J. L. Strachan-David- 

son. 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By Noah 

Brooks. 
PRINCE HENRY (OF PORTUGAL) 

THE NAVIGATOR. By C. R. 

Beazley. 
JULIAN THE PHILOSOPHER. 

By Alice Gardner. 
LOUIS XIV. By Arthur Hassall. 
CHARLES XII. By R. Nisbet Bain. 
LORENZO DE' MEDICI. Ey Ed- 

vrard Armstrong. 



JEANNE D'ARC. By Mrs. Oliphant. 

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. By 
Washington Irving. 

ROBERT THE BRUCE. By Sir 
Herbert Maxwell. 

HANNIBAL. By W. O'Connor Mor- 
ris. 

ULYSSES S. GRANT. By William 
Conant Church. 

ROBERT E. LEE. By Henry Alex- 
ander White. 

THE CID CAMPEADOR. By H. 
Butler Clarke. 

SAL A DIN. By Stanley Lane-Poole. 

BISMARCK. By J. W. Headlam. 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT. By 
Benjamin I. W^heeler. 

CHARLEMAGNE. By H. W. C. 
Davis. 

OLIVER CROMWELL. By Charles 
Firth. 

RICHELIEU. By James B. Perkins. 

DANIEL O'CONNELL. By Robert 
Dunlop. 

SAINT LOUIS (Louis IX., of France). 
By Frederick Perry. 

LORD CHATHAM. hy Walford 
Davis Green. 



Other volumes in preparation are : 



OWEN GLYNDWR. By Arthur G. 
Bradley. 

HENRY V. By Charles L. Kings- 
ford. 

EDWARD I. By Edward Jenks. 

MOLTKE. By Spencer Wilkin- 
son. 

JUDAS MACCABEUS. By Israel 
Abrahams. 

SOBIESKT. By F. A. Pollard. 



ALFRED THE TRUTHTELLERJ 

By Frederick Perry. 
FREDERICK II. By A. L. Smith. 
MARLBOROUGH. By C. V/. C. 

Omar. 
RICHARD THE LION-HEARTE 

By T. A. Archer. 
WILLIAM THE SILENT. By Rutl 

Putnam. 
JUSTINIAN. By Edward Jenks. 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, Publishers, New York and London. 



\f:.-*,: 



'i>t 



%t^ 



mz^ 



The Story of the Nations. 



Messrs. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS take pleasure in 
announcing that they have in course of publication, in 
co-operation with Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, of London, a 
series of historical studies, intended to present in a graphic 
manner the stories of the different nations that have 
attained prominence in history. 

In the story form the current of each national life is 
distinctly indicated, and its picturesque and noteworthy 
periods and episodes are presented for the reader in their 
philosophical relation to each other as well as to universal 
history. 

It is the plan of the writers of the different volumes to 
enter into the real life of the peoples, and to bring them 
before the reader as they actually lived, labored, and 
struggled — as l.hey studied and wrote, and as they amused 
themselves. In carrying out this plan, the myths, with 
which the history of all lands begins, will not be over- 
looked, though these will be carefully distinguished from 
the actual history, so far as the labors of the accepted 
historical authorities have resulted in definite conclusions. 

The subjects of the different volumes have been planned 
to cover connecting and, as far as possible, consecutive 
epochs or periods, so that the set when completed will 
present in a comprehensive narrative the chief events in 
the great Story OF THE Nations ; but it is, of course, 
not always practicable to issue the several volumes id 
their chronological order. 



THE STORY OF THE NATIONS. 



The "Stories" are printed in good readable type, and in 
handsome i2mo form. They are adequately illustrated and 
furnished with maps and indexes. Price per vol., doth, $1.50 ; 
half morocco, gilt top, $1.75. 

The following are now ready : 

JAPAN. David Murray. 

THE CHRISTIAN RECOVERY OF 

SPAIN. H. E. Watts. 
AUSTRALASIA. Greville Tregar* 

then. 
SOUTHERN AFRICA. Geo. M< 

Theal. 



GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harrison. 
ROME. Arthur Gilman. 
IHEJEWS. Prof. James K. Hosmer. 
CHALDEA. Z. A. Ragozin. 
GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould. 
NORWAY. Hjalmar H. Boyesen. 
SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan Hale. 
HUNGARY. Prof. A. Vambery. 
CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J. Church. 
THE SARACENS. Arthur Gilman. 
THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley 

Lane-Poole. 
THE NORMANS. Sarah Ornejewett. 
PERSIA. S. G. W^. Benjamin. 
ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo. Raw- 

linson. 
ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. J. 

P. Mahaffy. 
ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin. 
THE GOTHS. Henry BraJley. 
IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless. 
TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole. 
MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. 

Z. A. Ragozin. 
MEDIEVAL FRANCE. Prof. Gus- 

tave Masson. 
HOLLAND. Prof. J. Thorold Rogers. 
MEXICO. Susan Hale. 
PHOENICIA. Geo. Rawlinson. 
THE HANSA TOWNS. Helen Zim- 

mern. 
EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfred J. 

Church. 
THE BARBARY CORSAIRS. Stan- 
ley Lane-Pool. 
RUSSIA. W. R. Morfill. 
THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W. D. 

Morrison. 
SCOTLAND. John Mackintosh. 
SW^ITZERLAND. R. Stead and Mrs. 

A. Hug. 
PORTUGAL. H. Morse-Stephens. 
THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. C. W. 

C. Oman. 
SICILY. E. A. Freeman. 
THE TUSCAN REPUBLICS. Bella 

Duffy. 
POLAND. W. R. Morfill. 
f»ARTHIA. Geo. Rawlinson., 




VENICE. AletheaWiel. 

THE CRUSADES. T. S. Archer and 

C. L. Kingsford. 
VEDIC INDIA. Z. A. Ragozin. 
BOHEMIA. C. E. Maurice. 
CANADA. J. G. Bourinot. 
THE BALKAN STATES. William 

Miller. 
BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. R. W. 

Frazer. 
MODERN FRANCE. Andr6 LeBon. 
THE BUILDING OF THE BRITISH 

EMPIRE. Alfred T. Story. Two 

vols. 
THE FRANKS. Lewis Sergeant, 
THE WEST INDIES. Amos K. 

Fiske. 
THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND IN 

THE 19TH CENTURY. Justin 

McCarthy, M.P. Two vols. 
AUSTRIA, THE HOME OF THE 

HAPSBURG DYNASTY, FROM 

1282 TO THE PRESENT DAY. 

Sidney W^hitman. 
CHINA. Robt. K. Douglass. 
MODERN SPAIN. Major Martin A, 

S. Hume. 
MODERN ITALY. Pietro Orsi. 
THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 

Helen A. Smith. Two vols. 
Other volumes in i - iratio 1 are : 

THE UNITED S. ATES, -7751897. 

Prof. A. C. McLiiughlin. Two 

vols. 
BUDDHIST INDIA. Prof. T. W. 

Rhys-Davids. 
MOHAMMEDAN INDIA. Stanlej 

Lane-Poole. 
WALES AND CORNWALL. Owen 

M. EdwardSt 






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